Introduction to Many-Body Physics

A modern, graduate-level introduction to many-body physics in condensed matter, this textbook explains the tools and concepts needed for a research-level understanding of the correlated behavior of quantum fluids.

Starting with an operator-based introduction to the quantum field theory of many-body physics, this textbook presents the Feynman diagram approach, Green’s functions and finite-temperature many body physics before developing the path integral approach to interacting systems.

Special chapters are devoted to the concepts of Fermi liquid theory, broken symmetry, conduction in disordered systems, superconductivity and the physics of local-moment metals. A strong emphasis on concepts and numerous exercises make this an invaluable course book for graduate students in condensed matter physics. It will also interest students in nuclear, atomic and particle physics.

Review

‘… the field has advanced tremendously since the 1960s. Subsequent decades saw great progress in addressing new many-body systems – such as those exhibiting the Kondo effect, disordered systems, superfluid helium-3, and unconventional superconductors – and the development of new tools, such as functional integrals and the renormalization group. Students and instructors of quantum many-body physics need an updated, modern textbook that covers those developments. [This book] successfully fills the need. Coleman, an eminent condensed-matter theorist at Rutgers University, covers his subject with pedagogical flair and attention to detail … A reader who has mastered the material in this excellent book should be in a strong position to take on problems that have resisted conventional solutions.’ Mohit Randeria, Physics Today

Book Description

This book explains the tools and concepts needed for a research-level understanding of the subject, for graduate students in condensed matter physics.

About the Author

Piers Coleman is a Professor in the Center for Materials Theory at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A major contributor to the theory of interacting electrons in condensed matter, he invented the ‘slave boson’ approach to strongly correlated electron systems. He has a long-standing interest in highly correlated d- and f-electron materials, in novel forms of superconductivity and the unsolved problems of quantum criticality in metals.