COMPUTATION IN MODERN PHYSICS
Second Edition
by William R Gibbs (New Mexico State University)
The use of computers to solve modern scientific problems is very widespread. The impact of the improvement of our techniques on the solution of complex problems is difficult to overstate. Even our approach to most problems has been changed. Solutions to problems once thought intractable are being routinely secured. Instead of using oversimplified models, as has been the practice for the treatment of scientific systems in the past, the entire problem can now be tackled successfully.
The second edition of Computation in Modern Physics develops and presents algorithms for the solution of many types of mathematical systems, some dating as far as the last few centuries, but also quite a number that have been developed within the last 10–50 years. In this latter category, close attention is paid to the rapidly developing area of Monte Carlo techniques, where new conceptual views of physics problems are being brought into play. With this method, problems in a large number of dimensions can be solved through the introduction of a modern method for the representation of multidimensional functions.
This invaluable book is suitable for two different levels of computational physics. The first part of the book is of an advanced introductory level and is appropriate for good students with no previous experience in computational methods or any student with some experience. Here the student is introduced to integral and differential techniques, Monte Carlo integration, basic computer architecture, methods of linear algebra, finite element techniques, digital signal processing and chaos.
The second part of the book is more specialized for problems in strong interaction with emphasis on solutions to many-body scattering problems and several-body bound state calculations with Monte Carlo techniques. It also contains a chapter dealing with techniques for the summation of divergent series.
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