The Physics of Waves

by Howard Georgi

The first complete introduction to waves and wave phenomena by a renowned theorist. Covers damping, forced oscillations and resonance; normal modes; symmetries; traveling waves; signals and Fourier analysis; polarization; diffraction.

Genres: Physics, Science, Mathematics

432 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 1992

About the author

Howard Mason Georgi III is Harvard College Professor and Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University, where he is also Director of Undergraduate Studies in Physics and Master of Leverett House. In 1995 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and received the J.J.Sakurai Prize. In 2000 he shared the Dirac Medal with Jogesh Pati and Helen Quinn.

He is best known for early work in Grand Unification and gauge coupling unification withing SU(5) (Georgi-Glashow model) and SO(10) groups.

He later proposed the supersymmetric Standard Model with Savas Dimopoulos in 1981.

It is also worth mentioning his role in the Georgi-Quinn-Weinberg computation showing that the natural mass scale of unification is relatively close to the Plank scale and that the proton lifetime can naturally be extremely long.

He has since worked on several different areas of physics including composite Higgs models, heavy quark effective theory, dimensional deconstruction and little Higgs theories.

Most recently, with Arkani-Hamed and Cohen, he has found a class of 4-dimensional field theories in which extra dimensions can arise dynamically, providing a new slant of the meaning of space. The topological properties of such theories may shed light on critical issues such as the breaking of SU(2)xU(1) and supersymmetry. He continues to study these issues in the hopes they will shed light on the meaning of gauge symmetry.

Reviews

[Mark Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very nice introductory physics text that's available for free on the author's site, with particularly good treatment of resonance in harmonic oscillators and polarization of transverse waves. It serves as a good introduction to differential equations, too. The computer animations accompanying the text are particularly helpful.

[Adam Lantos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I obviously don't have the same opinion on this book as the other reviewers. Let me say that I used this book to accompany other books. Having said that, this is my review:

This is an advanced undergraduate book on waves. It has the full mathematical formalism behind them and it also treats many subjects that other books only treat qualitatively(like evanescence waves and tunneling, which this book fully treats on a qualitative and quantitative level). I don't know if this would be my choice for primary waves book, but this is a must for anybody wanting the full mathematics of waves and anyone wanting to know all the details behind something(that other books might stay away from its mathematical description and just give a discussion on it). And the only reason that this might not have been my choice on primary waves book is because my university does not delve so deep into waves at an undergraduate level. So, I am giving this a 5-star rating because of its full mathematical exposition of the subject matter. Now, as far as intuition goes, I am sure you will find better books out there.

So, the 5-star rating is good for anyone who wants the mathematical details of waves. For someone also considering intuition that the book gives, I would give it a 3 to 4 star rating. So, proceed with your own caution.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Genuinely the worst written physics text I’ve ever come across. “It’s a good reference book” is the only context I’ve ever seen people say it might be useful. Georgi generally explains concepts poorly, most exercises are unclear from a first go-around, and many areas provide very little reasoning or motivation. Hard pass for anyone learning wave mechanics for the first time. Go read French’s book, or any other book for that matter. Read a fantasy book if you want to actually have a better time. Read whatever new spinoff Harry Potter book J.K. Rowling decides to write, just don’t read Georgi’s book. Also, it’s $200 in some places, which is a straight rip-off.

[Omar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction to vibrations and waves but the author sometimes fails to explain things in a clear manner making some parts frustratingly hard to read.