The Geometry of Physics

ISBN-13: 9781107602601 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 748 str.

Theodore Frankel

Opis

This book provides a working knowledge of those parts of exterior differential forms, differential geometry, algebraic and differential topology, Lie groups, vector bundles, and Chern forms that are helpful for a deeper understanding of both classical and modern physics and engineering. It is ideal for graduate and advanced undergraduate students of physics, engineering or mathematics as a course text or for self study.

A main addition introduced in this Third Edition is the inclusion of an Overview, which can be read before starting the text. This appears at the beginning of the text, before Chapter 1. Many of the geometric concepts developed in the text are previewed here and these are illustrated by their applications to a single extended problem in engineering, namely the study of the Cauchy stresses created by a small twist of an elastic cylindrical rod about its axis.

Recenzje

Review of previous edition: '... highly readable and enjoyable ... The book will make an excellent course text or self-study manual for this interesting subject.' Physics Today

Spis treści

Preface to the Third Edition; Preface to the Second Edition; Preface to the revised printing; Preface to the First Edition; Overview; Part I. Manifolds, Tensors, and Exterior Forms: 1. Manifolds and vector fields; 2. Tensors and exterior forms; 3. Integration of differential forms; 4. The Lie derivative; 5. The Poincaré Lemma and potentials; 6. Holonomic and nonholonomic constraints; Part II. Geometry and Topology: 7. R3 and Minkowski space; 8. The geometry of surfaces in R3; 9. Covariant differentiation and curvature; 10. Geodesics; 11. Relativity, tensors, and curvature; 12. Curvature and topology: Synge's theorem; 13. Betti numbers and De Rham's theorem; 14. Harmonic forms; Part III. Lie Groups, Bundles, and Chern Forms: 15. Lie groups; 16. Vector bundles in geometry and physics; 17. Fiber bundles, Gauss-Bonnet, and topological quantization; 18. Connections and associated bundles; 19. The Dirac equation; 20. Yang-Mills fields; 21. Betti numbers and covering spaces; 22. Chern forms and homotopy groups; Appendix A. Forms in continuum mechanics; Appendix B. Harmonic chains and Kirchhoff's circuit laws; Appendix C. Symmetries, quarks, and Meson masses; Appendix D. Representations and hyperelastic bodies; Appendix E. Orbits and Morse-Bott theory in compact Lie groups.

O autorze

Frankel, Theodore
Theodore Frankel received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, San Diego.