An important contributor to our current understanding of critical phenomena, Ma introduces the beginner--especially the graduate student with no previous knowledge of the subject-to fundamental theoretical concepts such as mean field theory, the scaling hypothesis, and the renormalization group. He then goes on to apply the renormalization group to selected problems, with emphasis on the underlying physics and the basic assumptions involved.

This is a unique and exciting graduate and advanced undergraduate text written by a highly respected physicist who had made significant contributions to the subject. This book conveys to the reader that statistical mechanics is a growing and lively subject. It deals with many modern topics from a physics standpoint in a very physical way. Particular emphasis is given to the fundamental assumption of statistical mechanics S=1n and its logical foundation. Calculational rules are derived without resorting to abstract ensemble theory.