Written for students in search of a single-volume account of both the methods used in dealing with the many-body problem and the physics that result, this book is not an advanced treatment, but nevertheless assumes a good basic understanding of elementary quantum mechanics. Beginning with single-body approximations, the authors go on to devote full chapters to atoms and molecules, second quantization, many-body perturbation theory, Fermi fluids, nuclear matter, superconductivity, many-boson systems, grand partition functions, and Green functions. Each chapter contains an introduction and a selection of well-chosen problems, while a series of helpful appendixes deals with such topics as the second quantized form of one-particle operators, Wick's theorem, the loop theorem, ring diagrams, the time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory of electron gas, and other matters. A carefully selected list of references rounds out this comprehensive text on an important area of theoretical physics.
