An Introduction to Computational Physics 2nd Edition by Tao Pang (PDF)

Description

Thoroughly revised for its second edition, this advanced textbook provides an introduction to the basic methods of computational physics, and an overview of progress in several areas of scientific computing by relying on free software available from CERN. The book begins by dealing with basic computational tools and routines, covering approximating functions, differential equations, spectral analysis, and matrix operations. Important concepts are illustrated by relevant examples at each stage. The author also discusses more advanced topics, such as molecular dynamics, modeling continuous systems, Monte Carlo methods, genetic algorithm and programming, and numerical renormalization. It includes many more exercises. This can be used as a textbook for either undergraduate or first-year graduate courses on computational physics or scientific computation. It will also be a useful reference for anyone involved in computational research.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I used this book for a graduate computational Physics course. It provides an excellent overview of the modern practice of the subject (including even new methods like genetic programming!), and has the great strength of coming with sample codes. These codes allow the student to work with examples, to get a feel for how to structure programs, and provide useful templates for working through the exercises. The one downside of the text is that while it beings with an introduction to Java, it only described the language; it does not teach it. It would be much improved with an introduction to the basics needed to understand, modify, and use the Java programs on Pang’s website. If you are using this book and you do not yet know Java, I recommend either finding someone to teach you what you need to know, or seeking out another text to teach you the basics of Java. As a computational physics resource, highly recommended.

⭐This book covers an enormous amount of material and is loaded with interesting examples, making it a far better read than other introductory books that never manage to get past basic mechanics.There is, however, a downside to that. This book isn’t well suited to people who are completely new to programming or to people who don’t have a fairly extensive physics/math background going in. I have a PhD in physics and there are points in this book that leave me scratching my head. The code examples can be a bit confusing because there are almost no comments. The text explains the methods, but it’d be far easier to follow if the code made some attempt to be understandable on its own.

⭐The first criticism is that this is not the book of Tao Pang, the only thing that is related to the book sent is the thumbnail.The book Amazon sent to me is “Introductory Computational Physics: Andi Klein & Alexander Godnov”.This book (Introductory Computational Physics: Andi Klein & Alexander Godnov) presents a brief (very brief) introduction to numerical methods used in the work of the physicist with C code emphasis. Overall I only recommend this book as a quick reference guide, contains many graphics to support and mathematical derivations are short and not very deep in the analysis.

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