Book Description

A valuable learning tool for students and an indispensable resource for professional scientists and engineers Several outstanding features make this book a superior introduction to modern statistical mechanics: It is the only intermediate-level text offering comprehensive coverage of both basic statistical mechanics and modern topics such as molecular dynamic methods, renormalization theory, chaos, polymer chain folding, oscillating chemical reactions, and cellular automata. It is also the only text written at this level to address both equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Finally, students and professionals alike will appreciate such aids to comprehension as detailed derivations for most equations, more than 100 chapter-end exercises, and 15 computer programs written in FORTRAN that illustrate many of the concepts covered in the text. Statistical Mechanics begins with a refresher course in the essentials of modern statistical mechanics which, on its own, can serve as a handy pocket guide to basic definitions and formulas. Part II is devoted to equilibrium statistical mechanics. Readers will find in-depth coverage of phase transitions, critical phenomena, liquids, molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo techniques, polymers, and more. Part III focuses on nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and progresses in a logical manner from near-equilibrium systems, for which linear responses can be used, to far-from-equilibrium systems requiring nonlinear differential equations.