Hey physics chosters, where would I start if I wanted to understand contemporary theories of superconductivity? I have a math degree and am good with groups, rings, and manifolds, but no physics beyond a few credits of classical mechanics. Book recommendations especially wanted
doer of deeds
- she/they/it
electronics, applied math, software, ungovernable & unmarketable
Now available at https://mastodon.social/@multioculate
Eggbug forever
Mastodon
mastodon.social/@multioculateFuture website (parked at time of writing)
multioculate.ooo
Email me!
multioculate (@) multioculate.ooo
You must log in to comment.
in reply to @multioculate's post:
Depends on what you mean by "understand". If it's in the technical sense then it's a difficult question to answer since, in my experience, condensed matter field theory has never had many textbooks that people actually like. There's also the issue of assumed prior knowledge; most texts will assume you already have a good handle on various broad topics in physics, particularly statistical physics and quantum mechanics, and these books are typically difficult even for graduate students in physics.
I was hoping for "really grok what a cooper pair is and why that enables superconductivity and why apparently perovskite superconductors made people think about new ways they could form". I'm not above reading a few textbooks in sequence (or, at least, planning to knowing full well I might lose interest). Do you have a favorite quantum mechanics book to recommend to math people?
Let's see. I think the first key topic that is not found in more general quantum mechanics texts is second quantization; it is also assumed for the texts I know of covering BCS theory.
Might be worth checking out "Quantum Mechanics for Mathematicians" by Leon A. Takhtajan. It's basically a course designed for mathematics graduate students. Note the latter part of it looks focused on supersymmetry so is useless for physics.
For second quantization as usual, something like "The Quantum Theory of Light" by R. Loudon might be good here. It covers second quantization in the context of electromagnetism, which tends to be the most physical introduction. That said, with enough background from other textbooks, whatever course notes you find online would also suffice for just covering second quantization.
Actually getting to condensed matter field theory.
The classic text is "Methods of Quantum Field Theory in Statistical Physics" by A. A. Abrikosov, L. P. Gorkov, I. E. Dzyaloshinski.
For something more recent and possibly readable, "Quantum Theory of Many-Particle Systems" by Fetter and Walecka is quite detailed and uses a very conventional green's function approach throughout.
Both of those texts take quite a while to get to superconductivity. I'm not sure if any others do things differently while still keeping the formalism.
Thank you for these recommendations! This is exactly what I was looking for.