Unlike most other texts on the subject, this clear, concise introduction to the theory of microscopic bodies treats the modern theory of critical phenomena. Provides up-to-date coverage of recent major advances, including a self-contained description of thermodynamics and the classical kinetic theory of gases, interesting applications such as superfluids and the quantum Hall effect, several current research applications, The last three chapters are devoted to the Landau-Wilson approach to critical phenomena. Many new problems and illustrations have been added to this edition.

Kerson Huang is Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, and a leading authority on quantum physics. He is a highly experienced textbook writer and has written Statistical Mechanics, also published by Wiley. Professor Huang?s research interests focus on Bose-Einstein condensates and non-renormalizable theories.