Math for Physics Graduate Students

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naseermk
Posts: 93
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:47 pm

Math for Physics Graduate Students

Post by naseermk » Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:51 pm

I found an interesting link by a Postdoctoral fellow in HEP titled 'A Mathematics Primer for Physics Graduate Students.'

The notes can be accessed at:

http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~blechman/papers/mpri.pdf

Pls post a comment if you find any problems / how helpful it is.

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twistor
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Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:47 pm

Re: Math for Physics Graduate Students

Post by twistor » Wed Dec 24, 2008 1:02 pm

I have skimmed it and it seems reasonably readable, however I won't know for sure until I actually try to read it. Hopefully, being that it is written by a post-doc and not a professor, it will be less abstruse than most of the documents out there that cover the same subject areas. It's hard to find decent introductory material to advanced topics.

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quizivex
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Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:13 am

Re: Math for Physics Graduate Students

Post by quizivex » Wed Dec 24, 2008 2:02 pm

Thanks for the link. I only skimmed it too... but just based on the content I see it may be very useful to read later. I never saw tensors in undergrad. And apparently they're not just any old matrix as I first thought so I may end up printing out this document. The undergrad texts and profs have done a terrible job of preparing us IMO.

Velocitaneous
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Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:03 pm

Re: Math for Physics Graduate Students

Post by Velocitaneous » Wed Dec 24, 2008 2:23 pm

Agreed. Even if you're a math + physics major, you may not be COMPLETELY prepared unless you are willing to learn a bit above the required (Lie algebras and differential geometry aren't necessarily covered, I think?)

YF17A
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2008 4:42 am

Re: Math for Physics Graduate Students

Post by YF17A » Wed Dec 24, 2008 2:43 pm

This is a really excellent review. I'm starting a math/phys seminar at my school to try to get the physics students exposed to this kind of stuff, and this is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind. Thanks for finding this!



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