This textbook, now in its third edition, provides a formative introduction to the structure of matter that will serve as a sound basis for students proceeding to more complex courses, thus bridging the gap between elementary physics and topics pertaining to research activities. The focus is deliberately limited to key concepts of atoms, molecules and solids, examining the basic structural aspects without paying detailed attention to the related properties. For many topics the aim has been to start from the beginning and to guide the reader to the threshold of advanced research. This edition includes four new chapters dealing with relevant phases of solid matter (magnetic, electric and superconductive) and the related phase transitions. The book is based on a mixture of theory and solved problems that are integrated into the formal presentation of the arguments. Readers will find it invaluable in enabling them to acquire basic knowledge in the wide and wonderful field of condensed matter and to understand how phenomenological properties originate from the microscopic, quantum features of nature.

Discusses the structure and nature of matter and ways in which it can change.

A first course in two of the 20th century's most exciting contributions to physics: special relativity and quantum theory. Historical material is incorporated into the exposition. Coverage is broad and deep, offering the instructor flexibility in presentation. Nearly every section contains at least one illustrative example (with all calculations), and each chapter has a wide selection of problems. Topics covered include relativistic dynamics, quantum mechanics, parity, quantum statistical physics, the nuclear shell model, fission, fusion, color and the strong interaction, gauge symmetries, and grand unification.

This textbook is based on a mixture of simplified institutional theory and solved problems. The choice has been to limit the attention to key concepts and to the most typical aspects of atoms, molecules and solids, looking at the basic "structural" aspects without dealing in detail with the properties originating from them. The problems are entangled to the formal presentation of the arguments, being designed as an intrinsic part of the pathway the student should move by in order to grasp the key concepts.

Problems after each chapter

This is a new release of the original 1935 edition.

"Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind provides a complete, clear, unified theory of the foundations of mathematics, language, and the human mind. Mind in the human sense is no longer distinguished by a few chance details of zoological classification, but, like physics, is based directly in first principles. Because sentences share all functional mechanisms with equations - a main verb, linguistic deep-structure, recursion, discretencess, linear delivery, truth and falsity - language shares a common source with arithmetic and algebra. Because truth or falsity of equations depends on their symmetry about the "equals", equations are self-regulating, not arbitrary, and reflect the founding properties of matter. Sentences of ordinary language are formed from equations by the turning of a single key - that of symmetry - unlocking the human mind into the fascinating non-Euclidean world of 21[superscript st] century physics and beyond."--BOOK JACKET.