Instructor: Piers Coleman, Room 268 Scope of Course.

Many body physics provides the framework for understanding the collective behavior of vast assemblies of interacting particles. This course provides an introduction to this field, introducing you to the main techniques and concepts, aiming to give you first-hand experience in calculations and problem solving using these methods.

Texts:

The main text will be

``Many-Particle Physics'' by G. Mahan. (Plenum).

Three other good references are

• ``Methods of Quantum Field Theory in Statistical Physics'' by Abrikosov, Gorkov and Dzyalozinskii. (Dover Paperback) - Classic text from the sixties.

• ``Field Theories of Condensed Matter Physics'' by E. Fradkin. (Frontiers in Physics, Addison Wesley).

• ``Quantum Field Theory in Condensed Matter Physics'' by A. Tsvelik. (Cambridge paper back)

The last two books have a more exciting flavor to them, but they do not spend much time on the basics, nor do they provide exercises. Times: 11:30 on Weds and Fridays, in SEC 212, starting Weds Sept 3rd.

Office hour:

Thurs 2:00- 3:00 pm or by appointment. Tel 445-5082.

Assessment:

Assessment will be made on the basis of weekly assignments, a mid-term and final exam.

Outline

• Second Quantization. ``Free'' systems-- the building block of the quasiparticle concept. Fermi and Bose fluids; phonons and photons; spin-systems (x-y) model. Interactions.

• Green's Functions and Feynman diagrams at zero Temperature

• Finite temperature. Response Functions and the Kubo formulae.

• Application of Feynman Diagrams to (i) conductivity ; (ii) electron-phonon problem (iii) spin-fluctuations.

• Functional Integral Approach. (i) bosons, (ii) Fermions (iii) Mean-field method and its application to superconductivity.