Applied Computational Physics

Description

A textbook that addresses a wide variety of problems in classical and quantum physics. Modern programming techniques are stressed throughout, along with the important topics of encapsulation, polymorphism, and object-oriented design. Scientific problems are physically motivated, solution strategies are developed, and explicit code is presented.

• Includes over 400 exercises
• Uses best coding practices with C++
• Four chapters devoted to techniques for solving quantum mechanical systems
• Five chapters devoted to a wide range of methods to solve problems in classical physics
• Parallel computing techniques are introduced early in the textbook
• Working code is presented throughout the text and in an accompanying website

About the Author(s)

Joseph F. Boudreau, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, USA, and Eric S. Swanson, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Joseph Boudreau is a professor of physics at the University of Pittsburgh. He obtained his B.A. degree from Harvard University and his Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin. As an experimental particle physicist, he has concentrated on precision measurements in electroweak physics in the ALEPH experiment at CERN, on bottom physics at the CDF experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator laboratory (Fermilab), and on top quark physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. He is a former CERN associate, a former visiting scientist at Fermilab and the Center for Particle Physics of Marseille (CPPM), and a former Starr foundation visiting fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.

Eric Swanson is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1991 and subsequently spent three years at MIT and six years at North Carolina State before moving to Pittsburgh. He has published more than 100 papers on theoretical hadronic physics, condensed matter physics, and biophysics. Swanson was named an APS Fellow for his work on exotic particles and is a founder of the Topical Group on Hadronic Physics of the American Physical Society. He has been a visiting scientist at Oxford University, TRIUMF in British Columbia, Jefferson Lab in Virginia, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Table of Contents

1:Building Programs in an Linux Environment
2:Encapsulation and the C++ class
3:Some Useful Classes with Applications
4:Interpolation and Extrapolation
5:Numerical Quadrature
6:How to Write a Class
7:Monte Carlo Methods
8:Precolation and Universality
9:Parallel Computing
10:Graphics for Physicists
11:Ordinary Differential Equations
12:Polymorphism
13:Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos
14:Rotations and Lorentz Transformations
15:Simulation
16:Data Modeling
17:Templates, the Standard C++ Library, and Modern C++
18:Many Body Dynamics
19:Continuum Dynamics
20:Classical Spin Systems
21:Quantum Mechanics I - Few Body Systems
22:Quantum Spin Systems
23:Quantum Mechanics II - Many Body Systems
24:Quantum Field Theory

Reviews

"This is an extremely user friendly and compact introduction to almost all the computational and numerical aspects of physics at the graduate level. It can also be used as a self-study text, and, once mastered, will serve as a useful reference... I have no hesitations in recommending this book for science and engineering students who are either looking for a supplementary textbook other than what is being used in their classrooms, or, who want to venture into the world of computing on their own." - M. P. Gururajan, Contemporary Physics

"The book covers various important topics, including Monte Carlo methods, simulations, graphics for physicists and data modelling, and gives large space to algorithmic techniques. ... this book could also be very useful for students in chemistry, biology, atmospheric science and engineering." - CERN Courier