Statistical Physics of Particles

Perhaps I am a bit biased as I took Mehran Kardar's statistical mechanics class, but this is the best graduate-level statistical mechanics textbook I have looked at (including Pathria, Huang, and Landau). In the tradition of Landau's excellent mechanics textbook, Kardar is a master of statistical physics who starts with only basic assumptions about the nature of the physical laws in each chapter, and derives wonderful results elucidating the nature of statistical physics. The meat of the textbook is less than 200 pages and includes all of the basic results of thermodynamics, a section on probability, an introduction to kinetic theory, and the bulk of classical and quantum statistical mechanics; brevity is the soul of wit, as they say. A few areas could have used a little more elaboration (the derivation of the Boltzmann equation seemed to skip a few important steps in implementing the streaming collision terms, and a better explanation for the basics of diagrammatical techniques would have been nice), but none of the other books I have looked at even broached these topics in any depth. Unlike Landau's excellent statistical physics book, very little assumed knowledge is required to follow this textbook; obviously, skill in elementary algebra, calculus, differential equations, and a bit of Hamiltonian mechanics and a few very basic results of quantum mechanics are prerequisites. Recommended!

This book is so beautiful. I think it's one of the clearest exposition on statistical mechanics. The derivations follow a bit of the Landau Lifshitz style, being very systematic and rigorous at the same time, and very economical on word count. It's also very concise, I would say if you like the Landau series, you'll like this. I also like the emphasis on probability. I find a lot of statistical mechanics can just be derived from information theory, which unifies the whole subject, and Kardar uses that fact to make the whole treatment very unified.Beware, however, the problems are very hard, and require complete mastery of the material to solve (some require an ingenious trick).

I used both this text and Pathria for a graduate level class in statistical mechanics. Kardar's treatment is very modern and has a wonderful perspective. However, it is very mathematical while managing to not be very thorough. The problems were very good and the worked solutions in the back were quite helpful. For the material covered in this book, I preferred Pathria, which was in general far more thorough.

This is a great book for my graduate level Stat. Mech. It starts off simple and basic and builds. It's well written and the problems at the end of the chapters make you think (and sometimes google how to solve them). The writer was great too and responded when I asked him questions. The solutions in the back are nice and Dr. Kardar was willing to send me additional solutions to the ones that weren't in the back. A great book, a great author. Excellent learning tool.

Like: terse and to the point. Little dawdling in exposition.Dislike: terse and to the point. Sometimes a little dawdling is good (or great).Bought for a semester of Stat Mech. Supplementing with owned-books and some internet searches (MIT OCW - written by Kardar himself, sometimes; etc.). Would buy again if I had to.

Lots of good math

good and short explanation about concepts

Kardar's book is, as a couple reviewers have stated, in the style of Landau and Lifshitz.The logic and overall structure of Kardar's book is clear, comprehensive, and methodical. Kardar derives all the results from just a few basic axioms, and explicitly states any approximations or assumptions, which really helps understanding.The problems are well written and illustrate the material in the section. If you are stuck, the solutions to half the problems are in the back.Finally, it is terse. In 200 pages, Kardar derives and explains thermodynamics, kinetic theory (including the BBGKY hierarchy, Boltzmann equation, and hydrodynamics) , the various statistical mechanical ensembles (microcanonical, canonical, grand canonical, etc.), interacting systems (the cumulant and cluster expansions, van der Waals equation, etc.), quantum statistical mechanics, and quantum ideal gases. The terseness is the only aspect of the text that could be considered detrimental. I sometimes found myself pondering a page or two for hours, but when I finally understood the section, I could see that Kardar's explanation was exactly right, clear, and exactly the way I would have explained it. So for the most part, the terseness is not a problem. Sometimes, however, I think a little more explanation would have helped, especially in the sections about the Boltzmann equation, and the cumulant and cluster expansions.Overall, this is a fantastic graduate level text that really captures the essence of the subject, and I fully recommend it to any student of statistical physics.