9780442260774 - Mathematical Analysis of Physical Systems (2 resultados)

Hardcover. Condición: Fair. The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Hardcover. Condición: Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover, sturdy vinyl boards, x + 357 pages. A couple of foreign stamps on the front endpaper & pastedown. Text pages very good, clean and bright throughout, untanned, with unmarked text, firmly bound. Gentle handling marks on outer page edges. Boards show a bit of rubbing to the edges. Issued without a dust jacket. -- This book is a collection of essays that explores the powerful role mathematics plays in understanding physical systems. It opens with two landmark papers on the surprising effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences, including the celebrated essay by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene P. Wigner. These philosophical reflections are followed by a series of technical chapters that examine advanced mathematical methods and their direct application to concrete problems in physics. The volume includes discussions on gauge invariance as a fundamental principle in nature, the Radon transform and its mathematical foundations, the geometry of quantum flow, the intricate relationship between classical chaos, phase space structure, and semiclassical quantisation, the adiabatic method in many-body quantum systems, and an accessible introduction to catastrophe theory. Rather than presenting a single unified narrative, the book brings together diverse but complementary perspectives that range from deep philosophical questions about the nature of scientific explanation to highly technical treatments of sophisticated mathematical tools. The contributions demonstrate how abstract mathematical structures can reveal essential features of physical reality that are not easily accessible through experiment or numerical simulation alone. The volume is particularly notable for bridging fundamental philosophical inquiry with practical mathematical physics. It reflects a serious attempt to show working scientists how advanced mathematical thinking can be applied productively across a wide range of physical problems and remains a valuable resource for those interested in the deeper mathematical foundations of physics. -- Contents: 1-1. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences / Eugene P. Wigner; 1-2. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics / R.W. Hamming; 2. Gauge Invariance in Nature: A Simple View / Sylvester J. Gates, Jr.; 3. The Radon Transform / Stanley R. Deans; 4. The Geometry of Quantum Flow / James V. Lindesay and Harry L. Morrison; 5. Classical Chaos, the Geometry of Phase Space, and Semiclassical Quantization / William P. Reinhardt; 6. The Adiabatic Method in the Theory of Many-Body Systems / Vladimir Z. Kresin and William A. Lester, Jr.; 7. Catastrophe Theory: What It Is, Why It Exists, How It Works / Robert Gilmore.