G. Rickayzen

The scientific community is greatly indebted to the distinguished authors for taking the time to write this authoritative account of a very active field. Beginning with the historical development, they provide a thorough review of the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of liquid surfaces, especially of the liquid–gas interface.

First Page

A theory of the thermal conductivity of superconductors is presented, based on the theory of superconductivity due to Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer. The excited states of the system are treated as quasi-particles, allowing a Boltzmann equation to be set up. The electronic contribution to the thermal conductivity when the dominant scatterers are impurities has been calculated exactly. The result is very close to that of the Heisenberg-Koppe theory which is in fair agreement with experiment. The variational principle of Wilson has been used to find the electronic conductivity when the dominant scatterers are lattice waves. It is concluded that the theory fails to predict the sharp drop in the ratio $\frac{{\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{\mathrm{es}}}{{\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{\mathrm{en}}}$ as the temperature is lowered below ${T}_{c}$, a feature which is characteristic of the experimental results. The effect of the electrons on the lattice conductivity has also been calculated. The theoretical values may be too large.

Green's functions, named for the mathematician who developed them in the 1830s, possess applications in many areas of physics. This volume presents the basic theoretical formulation, followed by specific applications, and is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals in the area of condensed matter physics.Beginning with a description of Green's function in classical physics from a modern point of view, the text progresses to the definition and properties of Green's functions in quantum physics. Most of the book explores applications, focusing on transport coef