This book is entitled Physical Mathematics rather than the more common title, Mathematical Physics, for works of this nature. But more than the title of this book is original. It contains several unique features including covering several topics not normally treated in a book of this kind, and using many examples, some of them numerical. The work depends in significant part on the existence of computers, not only to illustrate numerical techniques but also to give numerical illustrations. There are even short programs written in Fortran and C++, but these programs form a very minor part of the subject matter. Numerous figures help the reader to understand the material.
Among the subjects not ordinarily discussed but treated here are Monte Carlo methods of numerical integration, path integrals, the renormalization group, fractals, and string theory as an alternative to quantum field theory. Some of these topics are not covered in...
