What do you think?
Rate this book
Topology and Geometry for Physicists
Differential geometry and topology are essential tools for many theoretical physicists, particularly in the study of condensed matter physics, gravity, and particle physics. Written by physicists for physics students, this text introduces geometrical and topological methods in theoretical physics and applied mathematics. It assumes no detailed background in topology or geometry, and it emphasizes physical motivations, enabling students to apply the techniques to their physics formulas and research.
"Thoroughly recommended" by The Physics Bulletin, this volume's physics applications range from condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics to elementary particle theory. Its main mathematical topics include differential forms, homotopy, homology, cohomology, fiber bundles, connection and covariant derivatives, and Morse theory.
"Thoroughly recommended" by The Physics Bulletin, this volume's physics applications range from condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics to elementary particle theory. Its main mathematical topics include differential forms, homotopy, homology, cohomology, fiber bundles, connection and covariant derivatives, and Morse theory.
- GenresMathematicsPhysics
320 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1983
15 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 30, 2017
Skipped Morse theory and instanton (plus the twistor version of it). There are some typos but not really something that bugs me a lot at this point.
The book is really good at getting the reader quick into the tools of topology and geometry which would normally take several textbooks to learn (or if you use one like Nakahara, you would need to plough through > 600 pages). When one has some rough idea about topology and differential geometry, this book is extremely helpful.
Nearer the end, it started to "degrade" because it makes assumptions about your knowledge that is getting wider and wider; Lie algebra suddenly needs to be well-understood, for instance (which is not covered in this text). So my personal feel is that this book is excellent up to the chapter on fibre bundles and by the time one reaches characteristic classes (which they did very well by the way, for making a case of computing it), one would probably need supplementary text. I believe a book at the level and nature of Nakahara or Frankel would be a good supplement.
Overall, a good book to refresh memory and try your hands on basic ideas of difficult topological and geometrical topics. Need other books to help if one were to master these tools.
The book is really good at getting the reader quick into the tools of topology and geometry which would normally take several textbooks to learn (or if you use one like Nakahara, you would need to plough through > 600 pages). When one has some rough idea about topology and differential geometry, this book is extremely helpful.
Nearer the end, it started to "degrade" because it makes assumptions about your knowledge that is getting wider and wider; Lie algebra suddenly needs to be well-understood, for instance (which is not covered in this text). So my personal feel is that this book is excellent up to the chapter on fibre bundles and by the time one reaches characteristic classes (which they did very well by the way, for making a case of computing it), one would probably need supplementary text. I believe a book at the level and nature of Nakahara or Frankel would be a good supplement.
Overall, a good book to refresh memory and try your hands on basic ideas of difficult topological and geometrical topics. Need other books to help if one were to master these tools.
Want to read
January 27, 2019Geometry and topology for physicists
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews