Basic Aspects Of The Quantum Theory Of Solids

Description: Aimed at graduate students and researchers, this book covers the key aspects of the modern quantum theory of solids, including up-to-date ideas such as quantum fluctuations and strong electron correlations. It presents in the main concepts of the modern quantum theory of solids, as well as a general description of the essential theoretical methods required when working with these systems. Diverse topics such as general theory of phase transitions, harmonic and anharmonic lattices, Bose condensation and superfluidity, modern aspects of magnetism including resonating valence bonds, electrons in metals, and strong electron correlations are treated using unifying concepts of order and elementary excitations. The main theoretical tools used to treat these problems are introduced and explained in a simple way, and their applications are demonstrated through concrete examples.

Contents: 1. Some basic notions of the classical and quantum statistical physics; 2. General theory of phase transitions; 3. Bose- and Fermi-statistics; 4. Phonons in crystals; 5. General Bose-systems: Bose-condensation; 6. Magnetism; 7. Electrons in metals; 8. Interacting electrons: Green functions and Feynman diagrams (methods of the field theory in many-particle physics); 9. Electrons with Coulomb interaction; 10. Fermi-liquid theory and its possible generalizations; 11. Instabilities and phase transitions in electronic systems; 12. Strongly correlated electrons; 13. Magnetic impurities in metals, Kondo effect, heavy fermions and mixed valence; References; Index.

Author Biography: D. I. Khomskii is a Professor in the II Physikalisches Institut, Cologne University. His main research interests are the theory of systems with strongly correlated electrons, metal-insulator transitions, magnetism, orbital ordering ('Kugel-Khomskii model') and superconductivity.