Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction: 1. Basic concepts; 2. Overview; Part II. A First Course: 3. Classical phase transitions; 4. The renormalization group; 5. The quantum Ising model; 6. The quantum rotor model; 7. Correlations, susceptibilities, and the quantum critical point; 8. Broken symmetries; 9. Boson Hubbard model; Part III. Non-zero Temperatures: 10. The Ising chain in a transverse field; 11. Quantum rotor models: large-N limit; 12. The d = 1, O(N ≥ 3) rotor models; 13. The d = 2, O(N ≥ 3) rotor models; 14. Physics close to and above the upper-critical dimension; 15. Transport in d = 2; Part IV. Other Models: 16. Dilute Fermi and Bose gases; 17. Phase transitions of Dirac fermions; 18. Fermi liquids, and their phase transitions; 19. Heisenberg spins: ferromagnets and antiferromagnets; 20. Spin chains: bosonization; 21. Magnetic ordering transitions of disordered systems; 22. Quantum spin glasses; References; Index.

Promotional Information

Updated second edition with several new chapters, for graduates and researchers in condensed matter physics and particle and string theory.

About the Author

Subir Sachdev is Professor of Physics at Harvard University and holds a Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His research has focused on a variety of quantum materials and especially on their quantum phase transitions.

Reviews

Review of the first edition: 'Taken as a whole, this book is something of a theoretical masterpiece. With its tight organization, the book leads the determined (and theoretically inclined) reader on a tour encompassing some of the most challenging yet beautiful topics in contemporary theoretical physics … Virtually every chapter contains a theoretical 'gem' … The equations are manipulated with flair and elegance that are testimony to Sachdev's talent as one of the world's premier theorists.' Physics Today

'The book is well written from a pedagogical point of view and hence suitable for non-specialists. On the other hand, it can be used (some chapters) by graduate students as well.' Farruh Mukhamedov, Zentralblatt MATH

'… a timely and well-informed update to the subject and provides graduate and advanced students with enough material to understand and tackle these very interesting systems.' Contemporary Physics