Statistical Mechanics

Every generation of researchers has to reshape its discipline, condensing older core material and clearing room for newer methods and discoveries. This text applies that process to statistical mechanics, a field that began in physics and chemistry but whose concepts now play a significant role in information theory, the study of complex systems, and contemporary biology.

The author writes for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in all of these areas. Rather than attempting to cover everything, the main presentation concentrates on material that mathematicians, biologists, physicists and chemists alike are likely to find compelling and useful in their own work.

The breadth of the subject comes through a large set of carefully designed exercises. Each one opens a door onto a larger field, ranging from chaos theory and information theory to questions about the far future of the cosmos.