7/19/2016 HowtobecomeaGOODTheoreticalPhysicist

Gerard'tHooft

LANGUAGES PRIMARYMATHEMATICS CLASSICALMECHANICS OPTICS

STATISTICALMECHANICS&THERMODYNAMICS ELECTRONICS

ELECTROMAGNETISM COMPUTATIONALPHYSICS

QUANTUMMECHANICS(NONRELATIVISTIC) ATOMS&MOLECULES

SOLIDSTATEPHYSICS NUCLEARPHYSICS PLASMAPHYSICS

ADVANCEDMATHEMATICS SPECIALRELATIVITY ADVANCEDQUANTUMMECHANICS

PHENOMENOLOGY GENERALRELATIVITY COSMOLOGY

ASTROPHYSICS&ASTRONOMY QUANTUMFIELDTHEORY

SUPERSYMMETRY&SUPERGRAVITY ASTROPARTICLEPHYSICS

SUPERSTRINGTHEORY TEXTS&OTHERRESOURCES RESPONSES&QUESTIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Howtobecomea
GOODTheoreticalPhysicist

Texts&OtherResources

Therearemanymore lecturenotestobefoundontheweb.

There are numerous good books on all sorts of topics in Theoretical Physics.
Hereareafew:

ClassicalMechanics:
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ClassicalMechanics3rded.Goldstein,Poole&Safko
Classicaldynamics:acontemporaryapproachJorgeV.Jos,EugeneJ.Saletan
ClassicalMechanicsSystemsofParticlesandHamiltonianDynamicsW.Greiner
MathematicalMethodsofClassicalMechanics,2nded.V.I.Arnold
Mechanics3rded.L.Landau,E.Lifshitz

StatisticalMechanics:

L.E.Reichl:AModernCourseinStatisticalPhysics,2nded.
R.K.Pathria:StatisticalMechanics
M.Plischke&B.Bergesen:EquilibriumStatisticalPhysics
L.D.Landau&E.M.Lifshitz:StatisticalPhysics,Part1
S.K.Ma,StatisticalMechanics,WorldScientific

QuantumMechanics:

QuantumMechanicsanIntroduction,4thed.W.Greiner
R.Shankar,PrinciplesofQuantumMechanics,Plenum
QuantumMechanicsSymmetries2nded.W.Greiner,B.Muller
QuantumMechanicsVol1&2CohenTannoudjiJ.J.Sakurai,AdvancedQuantum
Mechanics,AddisonWesley

Electrodynamics:

J.D.Jackson,ClassicalElectrodynamics,3rded.,Wiley&Sons.
ElectromagneticFieldsAndWaveslorrainandcorson
ClassicalElectrodynamicsW.Greiner
IntroductiontoElectrodynamicsD.Griffiths
QuantumElectrodynamics3rded.,W.Greiner,J.Reinhardt

Optics:

PrinciplesofOpticsM.Born,E.Wolf
PrinciplesOfNonlinearOpticsY.R.Shen

Thermodynamics:

https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gadda001/goodtheorist/texts&resources.html 2/4
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ThermodynamicsandanIntroductiontoThermostatistics2edH.Callen
ThermodynamicsandstatisticalmechanicsGreiner,Neise,Stoecker

SolidStatePhysics:

SolidStatePhysicsAshcroft,NeilW,Mermin,DavidN
IntroductiontoSolidStatePhysics7theditionKittel,Charles

SpecialRelativity:

ClassicalMechanicsPointParticlesAndRelativityW.Greiner
IntroductiontothetheoryofrelativityandtheprinciplesofmodernphysicsH.
Yilmaz

GeneralRelativity:

J.B.Hartle, Gravity,AnIntroductiontoEinsteinsGeneralRelativity, Addison

Wesley,2003.
T.P.Cheng,Relativity,GravitationandCosmology,ABasicIntroduction,Oxford
Univ.Press,2005.

ParticlePhysics:

IntroductiontoElementaryParticlesD.Griffiths
FundamentalsinNuclearPhysicsFromNuclearStructuretoCosmologyBasdevant,
Rich,Spiro

FieldTheory:

B.deWit&J.Smith,FieldTheoryinParticlePhysics,NorthHolland
C.Itzykson&J.B.Zuber,QuantumFieldTheory,McGrawHill.

StringTheory:

BartonZwiebach,AFirstCourseinStringTheory,CambridgeUniv.Press,2004
M.B.Green,J.H.Schwarz&E.Witten,Superstringtheory,Vols.I&II,Cambridge
Univ.Press

https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gadda001/goodtheorist/texts&resources.html 3/4
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Cosmology:

AnIntroductiontocosmology,3rdEdRoos
Relativity,thermodynamics,andcosmologyTolmanR.C.

General:

J.B.Marion&W.F.Hornyak,PrinciplesofPhysics,SaundersCollegePublishing,
1984,ISBN0030494818
H.MargenauandG.M.Murphy,TheMathematicsofPhysicsandChemistry,D.
v.NostrandComp.
R.Baker,LinearAlgebra,RintonPress

Findlistsofotherusefultextbookshere: Mathematics, Physics (mostofthese

are rather for amusement than being essential for understanding the World), or
alittlebitmoreseriously: Physics.

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