No comments about Mechanics of Deformable Solids: Linear, Nonlinear, Analytical and Computational Aspects.

2 comments about Solid State Physics.

1. I have found this book very very nice. It is a book devoted to the explanation of Solid State Physics. The languague is clear and essential but, in the same time, complete. The main physical idea are outlined in an very impressive way. It is interesting that each chapter is self-consistent so you can use it as text-book on the subject or for some specific topic related to your research interest. It's surely the best book on Solid State Physics that I have never read.



2. The theory is presented good enough and basic principles are clear. Appendix on the end of each chapter are helpful in understanding what is really going on in physics view. However,
   it is confusing for some very simple calculation errors here or there. And units being used when writing the book are obscure,especially in the magnetism part. Good book for reference but not the best for learning.

3 comments about Basic Solid State Chemistry.

1. Professor West's magnum opus:

   This book was the bible in the inorganic chemistry department of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, where Prof. West taught during my undergraduate years.

   He was/is a very likeable man, always helpful to his undergraduate and postdoctoral students, and the presentation is user-friendly and clear. The department is world-class, and again, it is hard to outdo this book for clarity and scope of inorganic/crystal chemistry.

   Topics: crystal structure, crystallography, phase diagrams, electrical properties, magnetic/optical properties, etc...




2. this is the required textbook of my solidsate material course. it is a very good book with a lot of detailed explanation of theory and lots of examples. it is suitable for graduate and senior undergraduate students.
   
   the only withdraw, I think, is that it does not provide answer key.
   And, of course, I wish it to be more cheaper.



3. This was a good book for the class I took, Solid State Chemistry. It went well with the lectures and gave pretty good examples. However, I wouldn't recommend it for someone interested in the subject and not taking a class. I did need lectures and supplemental notes to help understand a lot of the subject matter. Also, it doesn't give solutions to the problems in the back of the book.

2 comments about The Lattice Boltzmann Equation for Fluid Dynamics and Beyond (Numerical Mathematics and Scientific Computation).

1. The LBM methods are widely reviewed in all their relevant aspects.
   The only lacking of this book is the poor description of the mathematical/physical background needed by non-specialists for a complete undertanding of the book's topics (e.g. the link between statistical mechanics and fluid dynamics).



2. This is essentially the first book fully dedicated to the lattice Boltzmann method (LB). The author did a great job in providing the necessary history of lattice Boltzmann, from Lattice Gas Cellular Automaton, its subsequent development, and deployments to multiphase, supersonic, microfluidics, etc flows.
   
   The unexperienced reader will find the first chapters very useful, as they lay the grounds for the rest of the book. The "derivation" of LB is especially relevant and full of insight. Very novice readers will certainly have to read the first chapters a few times to really grasp what LB is about (just because the concepts are seemingly simple but not straight forward in reality). The author, to this aim, provides all the tools necessary for a basic understanding of the underlying process (mostly the fields of statistical physics and cellular automaton).
   
   The experienced reader will find this book to be a good reference to LB. The latest reference to date (Aug 20008) is the book by Sukop and Thorne (Lattice Boltzmann Modeling: An Introduction for Geoscientists and Engineers) that provides more recent developments in the LB field.

1 comments about Quantum Field Theory and Critical Phenomena (The International Series of Monographs on Physics, 113).

1. This book is a lengthy discussion of quantum field theory from the viewpoint of statistical mechanics. The author does a good job in connecting the theory of quantum fields with critical phenomena in statistical mechanics. Path integration is used throughout (more detailed discussion could be useful on how one relates the real time formulation for time independent Hamiltonians to the Euclidean formulation). It is the Euclidean functional integral that is exploited throughout the book to make the connections between QFT and statistical mechanics.The author should have discussed the issues with analytical continuation between the real time and imaginary time formulations. The discussion on instantons was very illuminating. -LC (Global Mathematics, Inc)

3 comments about The Theory of Polymer Dynamics (International Series of Monographs on Physics).

1. This book is great. It clearifies many ideas about polymer dynamics. If you want to understand more about this area, there is no better book to start with. But be careful, it was not designed for beginners. This is really great



2. This book is excellent, there is maybe none better that gets into the fundamentals of polymer motion. A warning: I read two or three other textbooks before I could understand this one.



3. Excellent book: but to grasp everything one will need to read through a few simpler texts first, say Scaling Concepts by de Gennes, Introduction to Polymer Physics by Doi, some Rheology book say Viscoelastic properties of Polymers by Ferry and Polymer Solutions by I Teraoka.

4 comments about Elementary Solid State Physics: Principles and Applications (Addison-Wesley series in solid state sciences).

1. This is a corrected printing of the 1975 text which was plagued with mistakes. Omar does a good job introducing topics with easy to understand examples and good qualitative explanations. The very first chapter gets the reader off to a good start with a thorough, but understandable, teatment of crystallography (other authors always manage to botch this). Omar's problem sets are lengthier, more varied, and above all, more doable than those in Kittel's text. The problem sets are preceded by a set of qualitative questions, which are good practice for the occasional conceptual problem that the instructor may include on an exam. The text has two minor drawbacks which are forgiveable in light of the dearth of good intorductory texts on the subject. First, the author did not update the text at all, (did he pass away?) but simply corrected many old mistakes. It was undoubtedly an up to date text circa 1975 but his treatment of more specialized topics (i.e. superconductivity) is badly out of date. Of course the basics, such as x-ray diffraction and band theory, have not changed so it is a perfectly good book for a one semester or one quarter course. The second drawback is that the bibliography, which cites textbooks that the author thought useful in the mid-'70's, was not updated either. The first five chapters in this text correspond to the first seven in Kittel. If you are unlucky enough to have been assigned Kittel, reading Omar will clarify many matters and provide you with an abundance of solveable practice problems.



2. The book is, indeed, much better organized, and much more intelligible and pleasant to use than the unfortunate Kittel "standard." With some tweaking, it's a good undergraduate course textbook and deserves to be wider known. Despite its age (basically, from the mid-1970's), it discusses a number of applications which are of current interest: semiconductor devices and optics, liquid crystals and polymers, some biomolecules. There are very few good solid-state texts, and this one's in the top row.



3. This is a great introductory text into solid state physics. Do not expect mathematic rigor but do expect to obtain qualitative understanding. I bought this book while taking Condensed Matter where the main text was Ashcroft and Mermin. The class was taught horrifically and I was not ready for the level of A&M. I bought this book and it was a fine accompaniment.
   
   That being said, there are problems. There are numerous errors (maybe they are corrected in the revised version). Omar uses n and N interchangeably for electron concentration which bothered me greatly. Also the problems are not that great. You don't learn a lot from doing them. A second edition would hopefully correct these issues.



4. Don't get the 2nd edition paperback - get a 1st edition hard cover. This paperback will fall apart very quickly, despite your best efforts.

No comments about Semiconductor Device Physics and Design (Series on Integrated Circuits and Systems).

2 comments about The Physics of Semiconductors: With Applications to Optoelectronic Devices.

1. often do i refer to this book regarding any conceptual clarification on quantum phenomena. people who do research in this field may find this book as a good reference. it is written more for the electrical engineers who like to delve more into the quantum realities. provides a very good introduction to the quantum theories that one needs to know to study different state-of-the art devices. although not that much details is covered on the devices but it creates the much needed background on theory. it starts from Schrodinger equations and then gradually builds the other related concepts. for example detail discussion is given on Boltzmann transport equations. its an easy reading.



2. this is a very readable book on semiconductor devices that operate on quantum principles. the book starts with Schrodinger's equations, discusses in detail the different perspectives of the particle in a box problem, then gradually develops to other theories, for example the Boltzmann transport equations. other processes (impact ionization) are also covered in detail. ofcourse optical processes are not discussed as this is only a device-level book. suitable for electrical engineers to learn the basic underlying concepts that dominate the present day state-of-the-art devices.

No comments about Physics of Dendrites: Computational Experiments.