Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics

The reason I liked this book over others is because of its clear
and crisp content to underpin the essential "physics" of each equation by simple words. Moreover, the connections between
each section and chapter are arranged in a logical way as you can see that Bob has indeed distilled a thorough understanding
of nonequilibrium stat/mech into a delicious, thin book for which every student who uses stat/mech for research should read.


Good intro for non eq stat mech, but not stand-alone   June 11, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I have taken and TA-ed statistical thermodynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and have found Robert Zwanzig's book to be the best introduction to the nonequilibrium side of things. Clarity is the goal here, without the detail of Kubo's Stat. Phys. II, and MUCH clearer than the latter chapters in McQuarrie. However, a student will get much more from this book if he or she has at least some background in quantum mechanics and, needless to say, in statistical thermodynamics.

Without getting into much detail, Zwanzig focuses on the fundamental concepts in a clear exposition. If you are taking yourt first course in nonequilibrium stat mech, this is the book you should buy. If, however, you have some reasonable experience with the subject, this book is not worth as much, since it is designed to be pedagogical. In that case, Van Kampen's Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry is best.


A great start but far too many typos/too little defn's   June 4, 2002
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Zwanzig shows great mastery of the material and his explanations are great. They help explain the material well.

But the big problem here is that there are just so many typos. When you want to follow complicated arguments, it can take forever to figure out what he means precisely/mathematically.

Also, there is not the slightest attempt to keep units correct or fix a representation, so one finds inner products between objects that don't really make sense. They are never formally defined.

It's a great book to get the ideas from and some simple derivations. I'm still working my way through parts of it. But unless you have a complementary book to guide you, especially through Ch. 8, or you are already familiar with the material, you may get lost...I would suggest Berne/Pacora Ch. 11 for help in Ch. 8


the shortest cut, indeed   September 5, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I really enjoyed this book by Zwanzig. It treats many standard subjects starting from Langevin eq., Fokker Planck eq., to projection operators and mode-coupling theories, etc. Most of the examples demonstrated are elementary, but some of them (heat bath, dipole moments, etc) are treated several times in different chapters with different techniques so that the reader can understand more deeply how these techniques are interconnected. Really enlightening!