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Directions for Use

This book is composed of chapters and their complements:

 – The chapters contain the fundamental concepts. Except for a few additions and variations, they correspond to a course given in the last year of a typical undergraduate physics program (Volume I) or of a graduate program (Volumes II and III). The 21 chapters are complete in themselves and can be studied independently of the complements.

 – The complements follow the corresponding chapter. Each is labelled by a letter followed by a subscript, which gives the number of the chapter (for example, the complements of Chapter V are, in order, AV, BV, CV, etc.). They can be recognized immediately by the symbol • that appears at the top of each of their pages.

The complements vary in character. Some are intended to expand the treatment of the corresponding chapter or to provide a more detailed discussion of certain points. Others describe concrete examples or introduce various physical concepts. One of the complements (usually the last one) is a collection of exercises.

The difficulty of the complements varies. Some are very simple examples or extensions of the chapter. Others are more difficult and at the graduate level or close to current research. In any case, the reader should have studied the material in the chapter before using the complements.

The complements are generally independent of one another. The student should not try to study all the complements of a chapter at once. In accordance with his/her aims and interests, he/she should choose a small number of them (two or three, for example), plus a few exercises. The other complements can be left for later study. To help with the choise, the complements are listed at the end of each chapter in a “reader’s guide”, which discusses the difficulty and importance of each.

Some passages within the book have been set in small type, and these can be omitted on a first reading.