Elements of Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena

The strengths of this book are the quality and experience of Nishimori and Ortiz as researchers and teachers. They know well how to explain physical theories and formalisms, and their writings have a very low threshold for the interested and mathematically inclined reader. The book has a very nice selection of topics, ranging from the basics in the theory of classical spin systems, via renormalization group theory and conformal field theory, to duality arguments and disordered systems. Above all, the authors have succeeded brilliantly in conveying the elegance of this particular field of mathematical physics. - Anthony Coolen, King's College London I am convinced that this book will be extremely useful to students. It proposes a rather broad choice of topics, which have been wisely selected. It covers the standard theory of phase transitions without entering too much into the field theoretic technicalities, but insisting on precise examples (like the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition), and conceptual issues. I think that this book is likely to be a very valuable one, the kind of book that will immediately become a classic book, necessary to any graduate student willing to have a good knowledge in statistical physics. - Marc Mezard, Universite de Paris Sud, Orsay, France This book gives a comprehensive and readable introduction to the most important aspects of the modern theory of critical phenomena. After a thorough discussion of the basic approaches of mean field theory and the renormalization group, more advanced topics, such as conformal field theory and spin glasses, are discussed to a level from which the reader can proceed to more advanced texts. The subject matter is well illustrated by examples and exercises, which makes this an ideal graduate text as well as useful background material for the more casual reader. - John Cardy FRS, University ofOxford