Topology for Physicists

Topology for Physicists
Author: Albert S. Schwarz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2013-03-09
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3662029987

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In recent years topology has firmly established itself as an important part of the physicist's mathematical arsenal. Topology has profound relevance to quantum field theory-for example, topological nontrivial solutions of the classical equa tions of motion (solitons and instantons) allow the physicist to leave the frame work of perturbation theory. The significance of topology has increased even further with the development of string theory, which uses very sharp topologi cal methods-both in the study of strings, and in the pursuit of the transition to four-dimensional field theories by means of spontaneous compactification. Im portant applications of topology also occur in other areas of physics: the study of defects in condensed media, of singularities in the excitation spectrum of crystals, of the quantum Hall effect, and so on. Nowadays, a working knowledge of the basic concepts of topology is essential to quantum field theorists; there is no doubt that tomorrow this will also be true for specialists in many other areas of theoretical physics. The amount of topological information used in the physics literature is very large. Most common is homotopy theory. But other subjects also play an important role: homology theory, fibration theory (and characteristic classes in particular), and also branches of mathematics that are not directly a part of topology, but which use topological methods in an essential way: for example, the theory of indices of elliptic operators and the theory of complex manifolds.

Topology and Geometry for Physicists

Topology and Geometry for Physicists
Author: Charles Nash
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2013-08-16
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0486318362

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Written by physicists for physics students, this text assumes no detailed background in topology or geometry. Topics include differential forms, homotopy, homology, cohomology, fiber bundles, connection and covariant derivatives, and Morse theory. 1983 edition.

Topology And Physics

Topology And Physics
Author: Chen Ning Yang
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2019-01-09
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9813278684

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'The book is an engaging and influential collection of significant contributions from an assembly of world expert leaders and pioneers from different fields, working at the interface between topology and physics or applications of topology to physical systems … The book explores many interesting and novel topics that lie at the intersection between gravity, quantum fields, condensed matter, physical cosmology and topology … A rich, well-organized, and comprehensive overview of remarkable and insightful connections between physics and topology is here made available to the physics reader.'Contemporary PhysicsSince its birth in Poincaré's seminal 1894 'Analysis Situs', topology has become a cornerstone of mathematics. As with all beautiful mathematical concepts, topology inevitably — resonating with that Wignerian principle of the effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences — finds its prominent role in physics. From Chern-Simons theory to topological quantum field theory, from knot invariants to Calabi-Yau compactification in string theory, from spacetime topology in cosmology to the recent Nobel Prize winning work on topological insulators, the interactions between topology and physics have been a triumph over the past few decades.In this eponymous volume, we are honoured to have contributions from an assembly of grand masters of the field, guiding us with their world-renowned expertise on the subject of the interplay between 'Topology' and 'Physics'. Beginning with a preface by Chen Ning Yang on his recollections of the early days, we proceed to a novel view of nuclei from the perspective of complex geometry by Sir Michael Atiyah and Nick Manton, followed by an entrée toward recent developments in two-dimensional gravity and intersection theory on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces by Robbert Dijkgraaf and Edward Witten; a study of Majorana fermions and relations to the Braid group by Louis H Kauffman; a pioneering investigation on arithmetic gauge theory by Minhyong Kim; an anecdote-enriched review of singularity theorems in black-hole physics by Sir Roger Penrose; an adventure beyond anyons by Zhenghan Wang; an aperçu on topological insulators from first-principle calculations by Haijun Zhang and Shou-Cheng Zhang; finishing with synopsis on quantum information theory as one of the four revolutions in physics and the second quantum revolution by Xiao-Gang Wen. We hope that this book will serve to inspire the research community.

Geometry, Topology and Physics

Geometry, Topology and Physics
Author: Mikio Nakahara
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 596
Release: 2018-10-03
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1420056948

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Differential geometry and topology have become essential tools for many theoretical physicists. In particular, they are indispensable in theoretical studies of condensed matter physics, gravity, and particle physics. Geometry, Topology and Physics, Second Edition introduces the ideas and techniques of differential geometry and topology at a level suitable for postgraduate students and researchers in these fields. The second edition of this popular and established text incorporates a number of changes designed to meet the needs of the reader and reflect the development of the subject. The book features a considerably expanded first chapter, reviewing aspects of path integral quantization and gauge theories. Chapter 2 introduces the mathematical concepts of maps, vector spaces, and topology. The following chapters focus on more elaborate concepts in geometry and topology and discuss the application of these concepts to liquid crystals, superfluid helium, general relativity, and bosonic string theory. Later chapters unify geometry and topology, exploring fiber bundles, characteristic classes, and index theorems. New to this second edition is the proof of the index theorem in terms of supersymmetric quantum mechanics. The final two chapters are devoted to the most fascinating applications of geometry and topology in contemporary physics, namely the study of anomalies in gauge field theories and the analysis of Polakov's bosonic string theory from the geometrical point of view. Geometry, Topology and Physics, Second Edition is an ideal introduction to differential geometry and topology for postgraduate students and researchers in theoretical and mathematical physics.

Topology and Geometry for Physics

Topology and Geometry for Physics
Author: Helmut Eschrig
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2011-01-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3642147003

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A concise but self-contained introduction of the central concepts of modern topology and differential geometry on a mathematical level is given specifically with applications in physics in mind. All basic concepts are systematically provided including sketches of the proofs of most statements. Smooth finite-dimensional manifolds, tensor and exterior calculus operating on them, homotopy, (co)homology theory including Morse theory of critical points, as well as the theory of fiber bundles and Riemannian geometry, are treated. Examples from physics comprise topological charges, the topology of periodic boundary conditions for solids, gauge fields, geometric phases in quantum physics and gravitation.

Riemann, Topology, and Physics

Riemann, Topology, and Physics
Author: Michael I. Monastyrsky
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2009-06-08
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0817647791

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The significantly expanded second edition of this book combines a fascinating account of the life and work of Bernhard Riemann with a lucid discussion of current interaction between topology and physics. The author, a distinguished mathematical physicist, takes into account his own research at the Riemann archives of Göttingen University and developments over the last decade that connect Riemann with numerous significant ideas and methods reflected throughout contemporary mathematics and physics. Special attention is paid in part one to results on the Riemann–Hilbert problem and, in part two, to discoveries in field theory and condensed matter.

Differential Topology and Geometry with Applications to Physics

Differential Topology and Geometry with Applications to Physics
Author: Eduardo Nahmad-Achar
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Geometry, Differential
ISBN: 9780750320719

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"Differential geometry has encountered numerous applications in physics. More and more physical concepts can be understood as a direct consequence of geometric principles. The mathematical structure of Maxwell's electrodynamics, of the general theory of relativity, of string theory, and of gauge theories, to name but a few, are of a geometric nature. All of these disciplines require a curved space for the description of a system, and we require a mathematical formalism that can handle the dynamics in such spaces if we wish to go beyond a simple and superficial discussion of physical relationships. This formalism is precisely differential geometry. Even areas like thermodynamics and fluid mechanics greatly benefit from a differential geometric treatment. Not only in physics, but in important branches of mathematics has differential geometry effected important changes. Aimed at graduate students and requiring only linear algebra and differential and integral calculus, this book presents, in a concise and direct manner, the appropriate mathematical formalism and fundamentals of differential topology and differential geometry together with essential applications in many branches of physics." -- Prové de l'editor.

Quantum Field Theory and Topology

Quantum Field Theory and Topology
Author: Albert S. Schwarz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2013-04-09
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 366202943X

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In recent years topology has firmly established itself as an important part of the physicist's mathematical arsenal. It has many applications, first of all in quantum field theory, but increasingly also in other areas of physics. The main focus of this book is on the results of quantum field theory that are obtained by topological methods. Some aspects of the theory of condensed matter are also discussed. Part I is an introduction to quantum field theory: it discusses the basic Lagrangians used in the theory of elementary particles. Part II is devoted to the applications of topology to quantum field theory. Part III covers the necessary mathematical background in summary form. The book is aimed at physicists interested in applications of topology to physics and at mathematicians wishing to familiarize themselves with quantum field theory and the mathematical methods used in this field. It is accessible to graduate students in physics and mathematics.

New Foundations for Physical Geometry

New Foundations for Physical Geometry
Author: Tim Maudlin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2014-02
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0198701306

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Tim Maudlin sets out a completely new method for describing the geometrical structure of spaces, and thus a better mathematical tool for describing and understanding space-time. He presents a historical review of the development of geometry and topology, and then his original Theory of Linear Structures.

A Brief Introduction to Topology and Differential Geometry in Condensed Matter Physics

A Brief Introduction to Topology and Differential Geometry in Condensed Matter Physics
Author: Antonio Sergio Teixeira Pires
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2019-03-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1643273744

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In the last years there have been great advances in the applications of topology and differential geometry to problems in condensed matter physics. Concepts drawn from topology and geometry have become essential to the understanding of several phenomena in the area. Physicists have been creative in producing models for actual physical phenomena which realize mathematically exotic concepts and new phases have been discovered in condensed matter in which topology plays a leading role. An important classification paradigm is the concept of topological order, where the state characterizing a system does not break any symmetry, but it defines a topological phase in the sense that certain fundamental properties change only when the system passes through a quantum phase transition. The main purpose of this book is to provide a brief, self-contained introduction to some mathematical ideas and methods from differential geometry and topology, and to show a few applications in condensed matter. It conveys to physicists the basis for many mathematical concepts, avoiding the detailed formality of most textbooks.