Statistical mechanics. An intermediate course. (Q2732558)

This is an expanded second edition of a successful textbook on Statistical Mechanics (World Scientific 1995; Zbl 0968.82002). In the new edition it has acquired two new authors -- the second and the third. It is supposed to provide material for a one semester course in physics, though not many students (or even lecturers) are likely to go through all its 648 pages in a single semester.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEStarting from a basic description of classical thermodynamics, the authors present a competent, eloquent and interesting description of all major areas of physics where statistical mechanics is applicable. Unlike some physicists, the authors express quite a friendly attitude towards modern mathematics. Among many pure mathematical ideas that find use in the book are some from differential topology, topological groups and functional analysis. It must be pointed out, however, that the authors seem to make a somewhat eccentric use of the ``maps to'' arrow, for example, what any mathematician would write as ``\(f:\mathbb{R}^n\to\mathbb{R}^m\)'' is presented as ``\(\mathbb{F}:\mathbb{R}^n\mapsto\mathbb{R}^m\)''.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEA book of this size needs a good and reliable index. This book does have an index. The first use this reviewer made was to look up ``entropy'' but failed to find any mention of the word on page 2 contrary to what was expected from the relevant entry in the index, though the word did occur on page 3. It is a pity that the index is unreliable.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe Bibliography, on the other hand, with its 163 entries contains a well selected and up-to-date cross-section of the relevant literature.