Course of Theoretical Physics explained
Course of Theoretical Physics |
Author: | Lev Landau (Vol. 1–3, 5–8) Evgeny Lifshitz (Vol. 1–10)
Lev Pitaevskii (Vol. 4, 9–10) |
Country: | Soviet Union |
Language: | Russian, German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Chinese, Japanese |
Subject: | Physics |
Genre: | Textbook |
Publisher: | Russian: Fizmatgiz, Fizmatlit, Nauka English: Addison-Wesley, Butterworth-Heinemann, Pergamon Press German: Akademie Verlag, Verlag Harri Deutsch, Europa-Lehrmittel Chinese: Higher Education Press |
The Course of Theoretical Physics is a ten-volume series of books covering theoretical physics that was initiated by Lev Landau and written in collaboration with his student Evgeny Lifshitz starting in the late 1930s.
It is said that Landau composed much of the series in his head while in an NKVD prison in 1938–1939.[1] However, almost all of the actual writing of the early volumes was done by Lifshitz, giving rise to the witticism, "not a word of Landau and not a thought of Lifshitz".[2] The first eight volumes were finished in the 1950s, written in Russian and translated into English in the late 1950s by John Stewart Bell, together with John Bradbury Sykes, M. J. Kearsley, and W. H. Reid. The last two volumes were written in the early 1980s. and Lev Pitaevskii also contributed to the series. The series is often referred to as "Landau and Lifshitz", "Landafshitz" (Russian: "Ландафшиц"),[3] [4] or "Lanlifshitz" (Russian: "Ланлифшиц") in informal settings.
Impact
The presentation of material is advanced and typically considered suitable for graduate-level study.[5] [6] Despite this specialized character, it is estimated that a million volumes of the Course were sold by 2005.
The series has been called "renowned" in Science and "celebrated" in American Scientist.[7] [8] A note in Mathematical Reviews states, "The usefulness and the success of this course have been proved by the great number of successive editions in Russian, English, French, German and other languages."[8] At a centenary celebration of Landau's career, it was observed that the Course had shown "unprecedented longevity."[9]
In 1962, Landau and Lifshitz were awarded the Lenin Prize for their work on the Course. This was the first occasion on which the Lenin Prize had been awarded for the teaching of physics.[10]
English editions
The following list does not include reprints and revised editions.
Volume 1
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1960 . Mechanics . 1st . 1 . . B0006AWV88.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1969 . Mechanics . 2nd . 1 . . 978-0-201-04146-0.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1976 . Mechanics . 3rd . 1 . . 978-0-7506-2896-9.
Volume 1 covers classical mechanics without special or general relativity, in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms.
Volume 2
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1951 . The Classical Theory of Fields . 1st . 2 . . B0007G5B42.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1959 . The Classical Theory of Fields . 2nd . 2 . Pergamon Press.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1971 . The Classical Theory of Fields . 3rd . 2 . . 978-0-08-016019-1.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1975 . The Classical Theory of Fields . 4th . 2 . . 978-0-7506-2768-9.
Volume 2 covers relativistic mechanics of particles, and classical field theory for fields, specifically special relativity and electromagnetism, general relativity and gravitation.
Volume 3
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1958 . Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory . 1st . 3 . Pergamon Press.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1965 . Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory . 2nd . 3 . Pergamon Press.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1977 . Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory . 3rd . 3 . . 978-0-08-020940-1.
Volume 3 covers quantum mechanics without special relativity.
Volume 4
- Book: Vladimir B. . Berestetskii . Vladimir Berestetskii . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . Lev P. . Pitaevskii . Lev Pitaevskii . 1971 . Relativistic Quantum Theory . 1st . 4 . . 978-0-08-017175-3.
- Book: Vladimir B. . Berestetskii . Vladimir Berestetskii . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . Lev P. . Pitaevskii . Lev Pitaevskii . 1982 . Quantum Electrodynamics . 2nd . 4 . . 978-0-7506-3371-0.
The original edition comprised two books, labelled part 1 and part 2. The first covered general aspects of relativistic quantum mechanics and relativistic quantum field theory, leading onto quantum electrodynamics. The second continued with quantum electrodynamics and what was then known about the strong and weak interactions. These books were published in the early 1970s, at a time when the strong and weak forces were still not well understood. In the second edition, the corresponding sections were scrapped and replaced with more topics in the well-established quantum electrodynamics, and the two parts were unified into one, thus providing a one-volume exposition on relativistic quantum field theory with the electromagnetic interaction as the prototype of a quantum field theory.
Volume 5
- Book: 1951 . Statistical Physics . 1st . 5.
- Early version: Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . 1938 . Statistical Physics . . B00085BKZG.
- Book: 1968 . Statistical Physics . 2nd . 5.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1980 . Statistical Physics . 3rd . 5 . . 978-0-7506-3372-7.
Volume 5 covers general statistical mechanics and thermodynamics and applications, including chemical reactions, phase transitions, and condensed matter physics.
Volume 6
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1959 . Fluid Mechanics . 1st . 6 . . 978-0-08-009104-4.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1987 . Fluid Mechanics . 2nd . 6 . . 978-0-08-033933-7.
Volume 6 covers fluid mechanics in a condensed but varied exposition, from ideal to viscous fluids, includes a chapter on relativistic fluid mechanics, and another on superfluids.
Volume 7
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1959 . Theory of Elasticity . 1st . 7 . Pergamon Press.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1970 . Theory of Elasticity . 2nd . 7 . . 978-0-08-006465-9.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1986 . Theory of Elasticity . 3rd . 7 . . 978-0-7506-2633-0.
Volume 7 covers elasticity theory of solids, including viscous solids, vibrations and waves in crystals with dislocations, and a chapter on the mechanics of liquid crystals.
Volume 8
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . 1960 . Electrodynamics of Continuous Media . 1st . 8 . . 978-0-08-009105-1.
- Book: Lev D. . Landau . Lev Landau . Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . Lev P. . Pitaevskii . Lev Pitaevskii . 1984 . Electrodynamics of Continuous Media . 2nd . 8 . . 978-0-7506-2634-7.
Volume 8 covers electromagnetism in materials, and includes a variety of topics in condensed matter physics, a chapter on magnetohydrodynamics, and another on nonlinear optics.
Volume 9
- Book: Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . Lev P. . Pitaevskii . Lev Pitaevskii . 1980 . Statistical Physics, Part 2: Theory of the Condensed State . 1st . 9 . . 978-0-7506-2636-1.
Volume 9 builds on the original statistical physics book, with more applications to condensed matter theory.
Volume 10
- Book: Evgeny M. . Lifshitz . Evgeny Lifshitz . Lev P. . Pitaevskii . Lev Pitaevskii . 1981 . Physical Kinetics . 1st . 10 . . 978-0-7506-2635-4.
Volume 10 presents various applications of kinetic theory to condensed matter theory, and to metals, insulators, and phase transitions.
See also
External links
Notes and References
- Book: Richard . Rhodes . 1995 . Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb . . 33.
- Book: Anton Z. . Capri . 2007 . From Quanta to Quarks: More Anecdotal History of Physics . . 112.
- Web site: http://written.ru/articles/notes/simplicity . ru:О простоте . 2006-06-18.
- Web site: http://zlo.rt.mipt.ru/?read=7096295 . ru:Форум-ФРТК-МФТИ: чем ландафшиц не понравился? . ru . 2011-02-18 . 2012-05-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170803090235/http://zlo.rt.mipt.ru/?read=7096295 . 2017-08-03 . dead.
- Web site: A Physics Book List . math.ucr.edu . 2017-07-25.
- Aboites . Vicente . 2005-11-01 . Feynman: The Lectures and the Man . . 58 . 11 . 12 . 10.1063/1.4796780 . 0031-9228.
- Livingston . Katherine . 1990-08-03 . Book reviews . Science . en . 249 . 4968 . 571–572 . 10.1126/science.249.4968.571 . 0036-8075 . 17735292 . 1990Sci...249..571C.
- Web site: Landau and Lifshitz reviews . . 2017-07-25.
- Web site: Centenary of Lev Landau . Lubkin . Gloria B. . 2009 . . en . 2017-07-25.
- Book: https://books.google.com/books?id=qqqQ8pTdxfEC&pg=PA253 . Pedagogy and the Practice of Science: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives . Hall . Karl . 2005 . . 978-0-26211288-8 . Kaiser . David . Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA . 253–286 . en . "Think Less about Foundations": A Short Course on Landau and Lifshitz's Course of Theoretical Physics.