Quantum Physics Books: Recommendations India (Wiley, Pearson)

[ritzmax72]

hello everyone.i need you ppl to recommend a quantum physics or modern physics book for reference.i stay in india. Wiley publication and Pearson Education are two publisher which i knw.u can suggest any other but good ones.

 

[jtbell]

Welcome to Physics Forums!

Please look around the Science Books forum to which I've moved this post, while you're waiting for someone to respond. Maybe you'll find something yourself!

 

[Mike_Fontenot]

I liked Dirac's QM book (I think it's called "Principles of...") more than any other QM book I've ever studied. Dirac is the gold standard of technical writers. His little GR book is likewise the best GR book I've ever studied...no one else is even close.

Mike Fontenot

 

[graphene]

What level of quantum physics / modern physics are you studying ?

Arthur Beiser and Kenneth Krane are two good introductory modern physics books.

You could try Cohen-Tannoudji vol.1 for introductory quantum mechanics. The fundamentals are explained thoroughly.

 

[Ken Natton]

Mike, after reading your post I went to the website of a certain prominent online book retailer and found the book by Dirac on general relativity that you mentioned. It is one of those you can preview. The first chapter is titled Special Relativity and is so short, barely more than two pages, that it is completely encapsulated by the part that you can preview. Special relativity in a couple of short pages by the author you described as ‘the gold standard of technical writers’. I was almost salivating. So I read it, and didn’t understand one single word of it.

So if I set myself a target no more ambitious than just to understand this one chapter the question is how to achieve that, short of signing on to an undergraduate physics course?

 

[Mike_Fontenot]

The first chapter is titled Special Relativity and is so short, barely more than two pages, that it is completely encapsulated by the part that you can preview. Special relativity in a couple of short pages by the author you described as ‘the gold standard of technical writers’. I was almost salivating. So I read it, and didn’t understand one single word of it.

Dirac IS incredibly terse and concise...he never uses more more word than necessary, but also not one less than necessary. I spent a whole year studying that tiny little GR book, and learned the fundamentals very well. But I frequently spent days proving some single statement that he made. It probably DOES take some minimum mathematical background to do that. And it's not a quick read, for anyone.

His QM book isn't quite so terse...it's longer, and I don't remember having to spend quite so long verifying every single thing he said.

But I never read ANY other technical writer who is so precise, so accurate, and (almost) error-and-typo-free.

Mike Fontenot

 

[ritzmax72]

Thanks! I got an idea of what books i should buy. Further, i need a complete volume of quantum physics from relativity to wormholes in cosmolgy. Mike ur recomended books seems useful. But i fear if they are too thin. U got my point? I want a full journey of quantum physics?

 

[Mike_Fontenot]

Mike ur recomended books seems useful. But i fear if they are too thin. U got my point? I want a full journey of quantum physics?

Both of those Dirac books are best for people wanting to get the most thorough understanding of the fundamentals that they can. They are both fairly old, and don't closely follow the more modern views of how the subjects should be taught. And being old, they don't cover any of the recent applications of those fundamentals. But the fundamentals themselves are timeless. Neither of those two books is any kind of superficial survey treatment of the subjects.

Mike Fontenot

 

[Daverz]

It's not clear to me whether you are looking for a popular book, or for a text for the usual "Modern Physics" course that covers special relativity, quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics at an elementary level.

Anything covering "relativity to wormholes in cosmolgy" is inevitably going to be somewhat shallow and unsatisfying.

 

[ritzmax72]

yeah may be part wise i wud get. But firstly i need a big "Modern Physics
" book that covers as much as whole into modern physics.