This textbook takes the reader on a tour of the most important landmarks of theoretical physics: classical, quantum, and statistical mechanics, relativity, electrodynamics, as well as the most modern and exciting of all: elementary particles and the physics of fractals. The second edition has been supplemented with a new chapter devoted to concise though complete presentation of dynamical systems, bifurcations and chaos theory. The treatment is confined to the essentials of each area, presenting all the central concepts and equations at an accessible level. Chapters 1 to 4 contain the standard material of courses in theoretical physics and are supposed to accompany lectures at the university; thus they are rather condensed. They are supposed to fill one year of teaching. Chapters 5 and 6, in contrast, are written less condensed since this material may not be part of standard lectures and thus could be studied without the help of a university teacher. An appendix on elementary particles lies somewhere in between: It could be a summary of a much more detailed course, or studied without such a course. Illustrations and numerous problems round off this unusual textbook. It will ideally accompany the students all along their course in theoretical physics and prove indispensable in preparing and revising the exams. It is also suited as a reference for teachers or scientists from other disciplines who are interested in the topic.

Autorentext

CV of D. Stauffer 1980/81 Guest Professor in Marseille, France 1985 Humboldt Prize for French-German Scientific Cooperation 1987 James Chair Professor; Canada 1988-90 first manager of many-body research group at German Supercomputer Center HLRZ Julich 1993/94 first Canada-Germany Research Awardee; spends one year in Antigonish 1994 and 1996 Guest professor at UFF, Niteroi, Brazil; 2000/2001 and 2005, sabbatical there 1999 French-German Kastler-Genter physics prize 1999 Foreign member of Brazilian Academy of Sciences 1999 Prize of Polish Education Minister 2004/6 Honorary doctorate, Université de Liege, Belgium 1990-2002 Member of Senate teaching committee, Cologne University; coordinated 13 curricula in the sciences in 1994/96. 1990-96 Member of Computational Physics Board, European Physical Society Edited Annual Reviews of Computational Physics, World Scientific, Singapore Past or present member of editorial board for : J.Aerosol Sci., J.Stat.Phys., J.Phys.A., J.Physique, Physica A, Physics World, Computers in Physics, Annual Reviews Comput. Phys., Int. J. Mod.Phys. C (managing editor), Theory in Biosciences, European Physical Journal B, Quantitative Finance, Computing in Science and Engineering, Blickpunkt: Der Mann, Complex Systems and Inter-disciplinary science, Communications in Computational Physics (China), Three books in 1980's (all translated into at least one other language, all in at least second edition), fourth book 1999, fifth book 2000, sixth 2006. 600 papers. Included in ISI list of 1000 most-cited physicists 1981-1997 (15000 citations, July 2006). About 20000 citations (ISI, cited reference index). Retirement Feb. 29, 2008 Stauffer CV Prof. Annick LESNE Annick Lesne (54 years) is a senior researcher at CNRS (French national center of scientific research), working in the Theoretical Physics of Condensed Matter laboratory (LPTMC), at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and in the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Montpellier.In the past years, she has been assistant professor at this university (from 1990 to 2006) co-director of the Paris Institute of Complex Systems (ISC-PIF, from 2003 to 2008), and visitor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES, Bures-sur-Yvette, from 2005 to 2012).Among her present responsibilities, she is a member of the editorial board of 'EPJ Nonlinear Biomedical Physics' (Springer) and the director of the series "Echelles" (Belin, 35 volumes). She has published 75 peer-reviewed articles, and beyond the present book 'From Newton to Mandelbrot', she has authored three monographs and coordinated four collective books, all published both in French and English.

Inhalt

Mechanics.- Electricity and Magnetism.- Quantum Mechanics.- Statistical Physics.- Dynamical Systems and Chaos.- Fractals in Theoretical Physics.