| Title: | Computational Physics |
| Other Titles: | Simulation of Classical and Quantum Systems |
| Authors: | Scherer, Philipp O.J. |
| Keywords: | Physics Computer Science |
| Issue Date: | 2017 |
| Publisher: | Springer |
| Abstract: | Computers have become an integral part of modern physics. They help to acquire, store and process enormous amounts of experimental data. Algebra programs have become very powerful and give the physician the knowledge of many mathe- maticians at hand. Traditionally physics has been divided into experimental physics which observes phenomena occurring in the real world and theoretical physics which uses mathematical methods and simplified models to explain the experi- mental findings and to make predictions for future experiments. But there is also a new part of physics which has an ever growing importance. Computational physics combines the methods of the experimentalist and the theoretician. Computer sim- ulation of physical systems helps to develop models and to investigate their properties. |
| Description: | This textbook introduces the main principles of computational physics, which include numerical methods and their application to the simulation of physical systems. The first edition was based on a one-year course in computational physics where I presented a selection of only the most important methods and applications. Approximately one-third of this edition is new. I tried to give a larger overview of the numerical methods, traditional ones as well as more recent developments. In many cases it is not possible to pin down the “best” algorithm, since this may depend on subtle features of a certain application, the general opinion changes from time to time with new methods appearing and computer architectures evolving, and each author is convinced that his method is the best one. Therefore I concentrated on a discussion of the prevalent methods and a comparison for selected examples. For a comprehensive description I would like to refer the reader to specialized textbooks like “Numerical Recipes” or elementary books in the field of the engi- neering sciences.While the first edition of this textbook was based on a one-year course in computational physics with a rather limited scope, its extent has been increased substantially in the third edition, offering the possibility to select from a broader range of computer experiments and to deepen the understanding of the important numerical methods. The computer experiments have always been a central part of my concepts for this book. Since Java applets, which are very convenient otherwise, have become more or less deprecated and their usage in a browser is no longer recommended for security issues, I decided to use standalone Java programs instead and to rewrite all of the old examples. These can also been edited and compiled with the “netbeans” environment and offer the same possibilities to generate a graphical user interface in short time. |
| URI: | http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/258 |
| ISBN: | 978-3-319-61088-7 |
| Appears in Collections: | ARTS & SCIENCE |
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017_Book_ComputationalPhysics.pdf | 8.03 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
