Recent content by pillow47

Dear PF, I'm trying to calculate the anisotropy constant of a ferromagnetic material. Then, of course, I need to worry about the demagnetizing field. However, a book I'm reading claims that we can calculate the anisotropy constant without worrying about the demagnetizing field, if the...

Thank you, nucleus and gadong. I will read the paper suggested.

Hi PF, I've been wondering why lattice structures form in metals and in salts. Why do fcc or bcc structures reduce the energy of a system so that regular lattices are favorable over those whose atoms are randomly placed? Thanks, Pillow

In a fcc or bcc lattice of Fe atoms (or Cobalt or Aluminum, or potentially any element) , for a supercell of 16 Fe atoms with periodic boundary condition, how do you estimate the total ground state energy of the system? The total energy is defined to include the kinetic energy of the electrons...

The Physics of Solids---Essentials and Beyond by Economou. I've read some of Kittel and A&M, nothing compared to this book. Crystal clear and very systematic in its exposition. Very new (2010). Lots of physical intuition. Starts with estimations of physical quantities with the most basic QM. An...

Sakurai is a classic. But I think Townsend is a better book for undergraduates. It's more approachable and more patient in its exposition.

I strongly recommend Townsend's A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics. Crystal clear, ample examples. Feels like he's telling you a story without losing the mathematical rigor. He claims it's the best undergraduate QM book out there. Definitely the best one I've ever read...

Dear PF, I'm reading a book on DFT, and it says that only ground-state wave function is a unique functional of the ground-state density, n(r). However, if in DFT the potential, v(r), is a unique functional of n(r), then shouldn't all wave functions be functionals of n(r), because you can...