(Part 3) Reddit mentions: The best mathematical physics books

I like http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Critical-Phenomena-Introduction-Renormalization/dp/0198513933

It's a complete self-contained introduction, there's also zinn-justin and at the end of the year http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Renormalization-Group-Methods-Physics/dp/0486793451/ will get published which should be nice.

• Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
  
• Introduction to Electrodynamics
  
• Dynamics and Relativity
  
• Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics
  
• Brief History of Time
  
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
  
  EZ

i started with carter, which is a great book, and then used huang, baxter, and landau+lifshitz.

This one:

University Physics, Volume 1 (with InfoTrac) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0534356583/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_npFoxbVVE5RYN

It's gorgeous.

Might not be quite what you're looking for, but check out Jos Thijssen's book

I know the author and he does a lot of nanoscale/materials science work, so I'm sure there's at least something of interest to you in there.

Chandler's stat mech book is a tough read. Are there any other books that cover similar material (phase transitions, monte carlo, fluids, non-equilibrium) but are more readable? I like McQuarrie, but he doesn't cover phase transitions or monte carlo.

Edit: I may have found a book to suit my needs. Does anyone have experience with Statistical Mechanics in a Nutshell?

This is a good book for someone with your background and interests, not much overlap with the others suggested so far.

http://www.amazon.com/Topics-Contemporary-Mathematical-Physics-Kai/dp/9812384049

Arfken et al and Boas shd be in every college library, but for those who don't have access:


http://www.scribd.com/doc/65695685/Mary-L-Boas-Mathematical-Methods-in-the-Physical-Sciences

http://www.scribd.com/doc/84183760/Arfken-G-B-Weber-H-J-Mathematical-Methods-for-Physicists-6ed-Elsevier-AP-s

http://www.goldbart.gatech.edu/PostScript/MS_PG_book/bookmaster.pdf

Cahill, Hassani, Masujima etc: http://www.amazon.com/Physical-Mathematics-Kevin-Cahill/dp/1107005213/

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mathematical-Physics-Methods-Concepts/dp/0199641390/ (really good review)

Is all nuts and bolts with very little in the way of flowery language, by it encapsulates a bachelor's program in physics end goals nicely. I would have liked it as a guide post on my journey.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0262691884?pc_redir=1410499474&robot_redir=1

Back in the day, this was the standard text for getting started: Quantum Fields in Curved Space (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521278589

Have a look and see how much you can understand. A lot is in terms of free scalar fields, so most of the heavy machinery of QFT is not needed to start.

Umm,

Wikipedia is completely worthless for any contentious POV, and has been utterly captured by hardline dogmatists in the areas of science and philosophy. It's not a useful reference for any area of controversy. Of course they are going to go after Mohrhoff - he is on the skeptic's blacklist after all!

The facts of quantum physics are uncontroversial. In fact, Mohrhoff has written an entire textbook on QM and clearly understands the material top to bottom:

http://www.amazon.com/The-World-According-Quantum-Mechanics/dp/9814293377

I truly don't care what any particular physicist believes. Quantum mechanics interpretations fall into the area of philosophy and not science. And interpretations are necessary, because what the science of quantum mechanics tells us makes absolutely zero sense from a reductionistic, mechanistic perspective. So we are forced to "interpret" the science in order to make sense of it.

I urge anyone who wants to "see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others" to read Mohrhoff's interpretation of QM http://arxiv.org/pdf/1404.6708v1.pdf for themselves and see that it makes infinitely more sense than atheist idle fancies with zero evidence like "many worlds", an attempt to rescue materialism from the demise quantum mechanics has wreaked upon it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation

Mohrhoff's QM interpretation is entirely in line with the Baha'i Writings on the nature of the physical world:

"The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your affections upon it... Verily I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion." - Baha'u'llah

P.S. Jerry Shoendorf who you cited is an old friend of mine!

Is this the one? 89 cents for the Kindle - OH YEAH!

http://www.amazon.com/Relativity-Special-General-Classic-Reprint/dp/1451002165/ref=pd_sim_b_1

No Ballentine is a physics text, just slightly more advanced quantum text than Shankar.

I'm not sure what modern functional analysis texts cover Gelfand triples. I know that Gelfand's volumes cover them, but they're out print AFAIK.

You can also check out Rafael de la Madrid's PhD thesis for a physicist's perspective.

There are quantum texts for mathematicians, like Takhtajan, but I haven't had a look at any recently to remember which of them cover this stuff.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but there certainly are many interpretations: Pilot wave theory (Bohm-De Broglie) which is a causal interpretation.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Quantum-Theory-Motion-Interpretation/dp/0521485436/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341429650&sr=1-2&keywords=bohm-de+broglie

http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Mechanics-Historical-Contingency-Foundations/dp/0226132021

How about with a focus on computational quantum mechanics? This book is designed for undergraduates with only physics experience, as oppposed to a lot of other books in this genre that tend to be graduate focused.

https://www.amazon.com/Computational-Quantum-Mechanics-Undergraduate-Lecture/dp/331999929X

I like http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Aspects-Cambridge-Advanced-Mathematics/dp/0521115779

Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory (Amazon, Dover)

I also suggest just going through as much of Khan Academy as you can. Maybe you could use this Schaum's Outline if you really want a text.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quantum-Physics-Robert-Eisberg/dp/8126508183
is this the book?

That phrase about no one having a great understanding of quantum physics is an old saying. It was true when it was said, it is not true today.

And I don't care whether you are talking about real or virtual particles. Negative energies exist for both cases. Case in point, the Kerr metric and its ergosphere.

Yes, what you quote is correct. However, Hawking shows here that this is due to particle pairs. Read the paper and you'll see that it is very much related to virtual particles.

Ask any theoretical physicist about Hawking radiation and they will tell you that the black hole absorbs a particle with negative energy and therefore loses mass.

You might have seen some quantum mechanics but quantum mechanics is a long way from doing quantum field theory in curved spacetime, which is what is required to show how this actually works. But until you've actually done those calculations (you can see the actual formulation here or here ) you will simply have to take it as a fact from those who have.