Computational Physics

The material in this book and software are aimed at refining computational skills in advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students by providing direct experience in using a computer to model physical systems. Its scope includes the minimum set of numerical techniques needed to "do physics" on a computer. Each of these is developed in the text, often heuristically, and is then applied to solve non-trivial problems in classical, quantum and statistical physics. These latter have been chosen to enrich or extend the standard undergraduate physics curriculum, and so have considerable intrinsic interest, quite independent of the computational principles they illustrate. Each chapter of the book contains examples and projects, which are applications of the numerical techniques to particular physical problems. The format allows students to work through the material on their own (60 hours of instruction). Alternatively the book can be used to provide supplementary material for courses in classical, quantum and statistical mechanics Designed To Teach Essential Numerical Techniques And Computer Modelling Used In Physics, With Examples And Projects To Apply These Techniques In Classical, Quantum, And Statistical Mechanics. Files On Disk Contain Basic Source Codes For Examples And Projects In The Text. Steven E. Koonin. Bibliography: P. [405]-409.