Providing a broad review of many techniques and their application to condensed matter systems, this book begins with a review of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, before moving onto real and imaginary time path integrals and the link between Euclidean quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. A detailed study of the Ising, gauge-Ising and XY models is included. The renormalization group is developed and applied to critical phenomena, Fermi liquid theory and the renormalization of field theories. Next, the book explores bosonization and its applications to one-dimensional fermionic systems and the correlation functions of homogeneous and random-bond Ising models. It concludes with Bohm–Pines and Chern–Simons theories applied to the quantum Hall effect. Introducing the reader to a variety of techniques, it opens up vast areas of condensed matter theory for both graduate students and researchers in theoretical, statistical and condensed matter physics.
Each topic is introduced at a basic level, making the book accessible to a wide audience.
Chapters can be read as stand alone.
introductions to different techniques, allowing students to focus on their own particular interests.
Covers topics seldom discussed, such as the relationship between renormalization in field theory versus post-Wilsonian approach based on fixed points of the renormalization group.
