This foundational text is written for students who want to go beyond the perceptual stage of music to learn how musical sound is created and perceived. It surveys a wide range of topics related to acoustics, beginning with a brief history of the art and science of music. Succeeding chapters explore the general principles of sound, musical scales, the primary ways in which sound can be generated, the characteristics of instruments, the use of mechanical and electronic recording devices, hi-fi stereophonic and quadraphonic sound, the design of electronic musical instruments, and architectural...

"Strongly recommended" by the American Journal of Physics, this volume serves as a text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students of physics as well as a reference for professionals. Clear in its presentation and scrupulous in its attention to detail, the treatment originally appeared in a two-volume French edition. This convenient single-volume translation begins with formalism and its interpretation, starting with the origins of quantum theory and examinations of matter waves and the Schrodinger equation, one-dimensional quantized systems, the uncertainty relations, and the...

This unique overview by a prominent CalTech physicist provides a modern, rigorous, and integrated treatment of the key physical principles and techniques related to gases, liquids, solids, and their phase transitions. No other single volume offers such comprehensive coverage of the subject, and the treatment consistently emphasizes areas in which research results are likely to be applicable to other disciples.
Starting with a chapter on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, the text proceeds to in-depth discussions of perfect gases, electrons in metals, Bose condensation, fluid...

In 1947 J. Robert Oppenheimer organized a historic conference of physicists at Shelter Island, located off the eastern tip of Long Island, to discuss recent advances in theoretical physics and the direction of future research. Over three decades later, the physics community held another meeting, the 1983 Shelter Island Conference on Quantum Field Theory and the Fundamental Problems of Physics. This volume is the record of the 1983 conference; it also includes much valuable information on the 1947 conference, for which no formal proceedings were ever published. The latter-day conference...

This concise monograph is devoted to techniques of solving many-body problems in physics using the quantum-mechanical Green function method. Suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students of physics, it requires some familiarity with the basic theory of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics.
Focusing on the general method, the treatment begins by establishing the connection between the Green functions and the thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics of a system. Subsequent chapters illustrate the method and apply it to different problems in the physics of condensed...