Mathematical physics Definition and 250 Threads

The recommended textbook for this mathematical physics class is Mathematical Methods for Physicists by Arfken (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0120598760/?tag=pfamazon01-20), however I've read some reviews online that seem to think that this textbook is inferior to the textbook Mathematical Physics: A...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week255.html August 11, 2007 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 255) John Baez I've been roaming around Europe this summer - first Paris, then Delphi and Olympia, then Greenwich, then Oslo, and now back to Greenwich. I'm dying to...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week253.html June 27, 2007 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 253) John Baez Yay! Classes are over! Soon I'm going to Paris for three weeks, to talk to Paul-Andre Mellies about logic, games and category theory. But right now I'm in...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week251.html May 5, 2007 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 251) John Baez I learned some fun stuff about the foundations of quantum mechanics last week at Les Treilles, so I want to mention that before I forget! I'll take a little...

I am close to finishing my undergrad, but so far my background is solely math. I would like to get into mathematical physics though. Should I get another undergrad degree, this time in physics, or is there another way to approach this?

I'm doing a 5 year masters (Mphys) in mathematical physics. My director of studies told me that is a much more prestigious degree than the straightforward physics counterpart, and says it will serve me well in the future. However, for my last three years i won't be doing any labwork at all, its...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week249.html April 8, 2007 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 249) John BaezAs you may recall, I'm telling a long story about symmetry, geometry, and algebra. Some of this tale is new work done by James Dolan, Todd Trimble and...

Hello all I need some special help concerning the path integrals and exactely about the techniques of Fradkin-Gitman and also the technique of Alexandrou et al., what's they're exactely about ?. (what does it mean here al. in "Alexandrou et al." ):smile: Thank you very much for every...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week248.html March 28, 2007 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 248) John Baez This week I'll continue the Tale of Groupoidification, but first - relativity on the world-wide web, and some new views of the Sun! Chris Hillman has...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week247.html March 23, 2007 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 247) John Baez Symmetry has fascinated us throughout the ages. Greek settlers in Sicily may have seen irregular 12-sided crystals of pyrite in Sicily and dreamt up the...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week246.html February 24, 2007 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 246) John Baez I've been gearing up to tell a big, wonderful story about the quest to generalize quantum knot invariants to higher dimensions by categorifying the...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week244.html February 2, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 244) John Baez In January I spent a week at this workshop at the Fields Institute in Toronto: 1) Higher Categories and Their Applications...

I'm interested in focusing on nonlinear dynamics or mathematical physics for my PhD and was wondering if anyone could tell me what US universities have strong departments in these topics. I've heard that Cornell is good for dynamics and chaos but haven't heard much about other colleges. Thanks.

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week242.html December 17, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 242) John Baez This week I'd like to talk about a paper by Jeffrey Morton. Jeff is a grad student now working with me on topological quantum field theory and higher...

I don't really understand the difference between the two. Can someone please highlight the differences and resemblances? Thank you in advance.

hi, i'm wanting to start a degree next year in either physics or mathematical physics. The mathematical physics degree is a joint honours degree. I'm just wondering what is the difference between physics and mathematical physics? Is mathematical physics basically just another name for...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week241.html November 18, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 241) John Baez I've been working too hard, and running around too much, to write This Week's Finds for a while. A bunch of stuff has built up that I want to explain...

I am applying for undergraduate schools in Canada at the moment, and most of them have provided me the option of taking several specialized programs with a focus on physics. They have programs like computational physics, astrophysics, chemical physics, mathematical physics and, of course...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week239.html August 16, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 239) John Baez David Corfield, Urs Schreiber and I have started up a new blog! David is a philosopher, Urs is a physicist, and I'm a mathematician, but one thing we all...

Some updates on the Bullet Cluster / dark matter saga. You can now see a picture of the Bullet Cluster here: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week238.html I've also updated a bunch of information and fixed some mistakes in the initial version of "week238", thanks in part to Matt Owers...

[SOLVED] This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 236) Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week236.html July 26, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 236) John Baez This week I'd like to catch you up on some papers about categorification and quantum...

Ralph Hartley wrote: >There is no problem defining the group valued momentum for a particle, >as long as you specify both a loop, a base point and a coordinate frame >at the base point. You also need to be careful defining the "ordinary" >velocity. A reference frame is not enough. You need a...

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week231.html May 9, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 230) John Baez Enceladus is a moon of Saturn with a cracked icy surface, twisted and buckled by tidal forces, hinting at mysteries beneath: 1) NASA, Enceladus the...

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week230.html May 5, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 230) John Baez As we've seen in previous weeks, Mars is a beautiful world, but a world in a minor key, a world whose glory days - the Hesperian Epoch - are long gone, whose...

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week228.html March 18, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 228) John Baez Last week I showed you some pretty pictures of dunes on Mars. This week I'll talk about dunes called "barchans" and their relation to self-organized...

Hi all, given an article in mathematical physics, is there a way to know in which articles it has been cited in the literature? Thanks

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week226.html February 23, 2003 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 226) John Baez This month I'm hanging out at CIRM, the "Centre International de Recontres Mathematiques" near Marseille. It's like a little hotel with a classroom...

[SOLVED] This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 225) Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week225.html December 24, 2005 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics - Week 225 John Baez Happy holidays! I'll start with some gift suggestions for people who put off their...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week221.html September 18, 2005 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics - Week 221 John Baez After going to the Streetfest this summer, I wandered around China. I began by going to a big conference in Beijing, the 22nd International Congress on...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week218.html June 5, 2005 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics - Week 218 John Baez Classes are over! Summer is here! Now I can finally get some work done! I'll be traveling to Sydney, Canberra, Beijing, Chengdu and Calgary, but mainly I...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week217.html May 30, 2005 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics - Week 217 John Baez Last week I described lots of different zeta functions, but didn't say much about what they're good for. This week I'd like to get started on fixing that...

I'm reading Schutz's text Geometrical methods of mathematical physics right now as a part of a diredcted study (Two of my former math professors and I wish to learn the subject together so we formed a group for self-study). I know the material in a general sense but not at the precision of this...

Also available as http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week238.html August 16, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 238) John Baez NASA is trying to built up suspense with this "media advisory": 1) NASA, NASA Announces Dark Matter Discovery...

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week236.html July 26, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 236) John Baez This week I'd like to catch you up on some papers about categorification and quantum mechanics. But first, since it's summer vacation, I'd like to take you...

im thinking on buying one of the two books: 1)Mathematical Physics- by sadri hassani. 2)Mathematical Methods For Physicists - by george arfken. which is the better choice?

Ralph Hartley wrote: >Consider a polyhedron inscribed in a sphere of radius 1, centered at the >origin. Let the surface of the polyhedron inherit the metric from R^3 >(which will be flat except at the vertexes). > >For any point p other than the origin, let p_1 be the intersection of >the...

Ralph Hartley wrote: >There is no problem defining the group valued momentum for a particle, >as long as you specify both a loop, a base point and a coordinate frame >at the base point. You also need to be careful defining the "ordinary" >velocity. A reference frame is not enough. You need a...

I wrote: >In article <4486EF88.1010902@aic.nrl.navy.mil>, Ralph Hartley ><hartley@aic.nrl.navy.mil> wrote: [snip] >>[T]here is a limit to how many wedges you can cut out of a plane, and >>still have the topology of a plane. If the deficit angle is 2Pi the >>plane closes up into a sphere. >>...

Hi all I'm currently self-studying a relatively new book, "A Course in Modern Mathematical Physics", by Peter Szekeres, retired fellow at Uni of Adelaide (yes, he's the son of George Szekeres, of "Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates" fame :wink: ). I find it so far to be a totally great book! I...

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week231.html May 9, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 230) John Baez Enceladus is a moon of Saturn with a cracked icy surface, twisted and buckled by tidal forces, hinting at mysteries beneath: 1) NASA, Enceladus the...

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week230.html May 5, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 230) John Baez As we've seen in previous weeks, Mars is a beautiful world, but a world in a minor key, a world whose glory days - the Hesperian Epoch - are long gone, whose...

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week228.html March 18, 2006 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 228) John Baez Last week I showed you some pretty pictures of dunes on Mars. This week I'll talk about dunes called "barchans" and their relation to self-organized...

Hi all, given an article in mathematical physics, is there a way to know in which articles it has been cited in the literature? Thanks

I tried to read Classical Electrodynamics - 3rd Ed by J.D. Jackson cover to cover with the aim of working through all the homework problems. Problem: The math is too prohibitive. I need to drop that book for now and pick up a book on mathematical physics and go through that first. I'd like some...

So I'm taking a class that's actually called techniques of theoretical physics. Basically, its applying math to physics. Topics we cover are: Vector Calc, Diff EQ, Linear Alg, and Fourier series, (i think, that's from memory.) problem is, the professor is insanely fast, the material is hard, and...

Also available at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week226.html February 23, 2003 This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 226) John Baez This month I'm hanging out at CIRM, the "Centre International de Recontres Mathematiques" near Marseille. It's like a little hotel with a classroom...

I will shortly be going to edinburgh university to study either physics or mathematical physics. The main difference is that all of the experimental lab work would be replaced by specialist mathematical physics stuff. Do they have similar job prospects or is there more work in one field than the...

I'm thinking of studying mathematical physics at my local university. But I'm no sure what kind of a job I could get with such a degree,. I'm interested mostly in scientific reasrch and stuf like that. I'm not really a major fan of industial reassrsh. So could somen pleas tell me what a...

Is mathematical physics the study of physics that is focused on the mathematics? If it is, would it give me a disadvantage in the field theoretical physics for choosing mathematical physics instead of mathematics in the future?

I am a student in physics engineering and I recently heard about a book called "Mathematical Physics" written by Eugene Butkov. I would like to know if there is a free electronic version (like .pdf) of this book over the Internet because the book itself is very expensive and it is only...