Suggested Reading: Science Books
This is a very subjective selection of books I have read (from my time as a student of Physics and Philosophy until recently), which in the one or other way helped me to better understand certain aspects of science. I believe that "understanding science" is always work in progress, globally reflected in the History of Science and individually in ones own biography of mastering and contributing to a small (but hopefully increasing) piece of today's state of the art.
Text enclosed by apostrophes is quoted from the foreword of the books, anything else is my very subjective comment.
Physics
- R.P. Feynman, R.B. Leighton and M. Sands,
The Feynman Lectures on Physics Volume 1-3,
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company (Sixth printing, 1977)
"The lectures here are not in any way meant to be a survey course, but are very serious. I thought to address them to the most intelligent in the class and to make sure, if possible, that even the most intelligent student was unable to completely encompass everything that was in the lectures [...]" - V.I. Arnold,
Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics,
Springer Graduate Texts in Mathematics 60 (Fourth Printing 1984)
The book which I found most enlightening on the subject, maybe next to the Landau-Lifschitz. - J.J. Sakurai,
Modern Quantum Mechanics,
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company (1985)
"This book is intended for the first year graduate student who has studied quantum mechanics at the junior or senior level. It does not provide and introduction to quantum mechanics for the beginner." This book gave me the (maybe wrong) impression that there is indeed a way to understand quantum mechanics. - H. Haken,
Synergetics,
Springer (Third Revised and Enlarged Edition 1983)
This book addresses subjects as 'Nonequilibrium Nonlinear Statistical Physics', `Self-Organisation', `Chaos and Order', which were very much en vogue in the 80ies when I was a student of Physics. Its (repeated) lecture eventually encouraged me to do my diploma thesis with H.J.Schellnhuber, who at this time was leading the Complex Systems Group at the University of Oldenburg.
(Computational) Fluid Dynamics
- D.J. Tritton,
Physical Fluid Dynamics,
Oxford University Press (Second Edition 1988)
"[...] this book may be said to treat fluid dynamics as a branch of physics, rather than as a branch of applied mathematics or of engineering." - J.H. Ferziger and M. Peric,
Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics,
Springer (1996)
"It is our belief that, to work in CFD, one needs a solid background in fluid mechanics and numerical analysis; [...] We therefore encourage the reader to obtain a working knowledge of these subjects before entering into a study of the material in this book. [...] The finite volume method is favored in this book, although finite difference methods are desvribed [...]. Finite element methods are not covered in detail [...]."
Lattice Gas/Boltzmann
Meanwhile there is a variety of textbooks available which give an introduction to Lattice Gas and Lattice Boltzmann theory and applications. Below I list all books I am aware of (in chronological order of their publishing date).
- D.H. Rothman and S. Zaleski,
Lattice-Gas Cellular Automata,
Cambridge University Press (1997)
The first textbook on the method, and therefore mainly concerned with Lattice Gas. A very good introduction to the theory, but maybe not a good primer for someone mainly interested in Lattice Boltzmann application. - B. Chopard and M. Droz,
Cellular Automata Models of Physical Systems,
Cambridge University Press (1998)
"The cellular automata approach and the related modeling techniques are powerful methods to describe, understand and simulate the behavior of complex systems. The aim of this book is to provide a pedagogical and self-contained introduction to this field [...]. Our main goal is to present the fundamental theoretical concepts necessary for a researcher to address advanced applications in physics and other scientific areas." Similar to Rothman's book mainly a source for Lattice Gas theory and a large variety of applications, Lattice Boltzmann is very briefly mentioned. - D.A. Wolf-Gladrow,
Lattice-Gas Cellular Automata and Lattice Boltzmann
Models - An Introduction Springer (2000)
"[...] the level of presentation should be appropriate for undergraduate students. Thus methods like the Chapman-Enskog expansion or the maximum entropy principle [...] are discussed in some detail." This book is more focussed on a detailed explanation of the theory and not so much concerned with a large variety of applications. A very good starting point if you want to understand Lattice Gas/Boltzmann theory. - S. Succi,
The Lattice Boltzmann Equation - for Fluid Dynamics and
Beyond, Oxford University Press (2001)
"This book is about the Lattice Boltzmann Equation [...]. (It) relies more on physical intuition and heuristic arguments than on detailed mathematical analysis, the idea being to provide an easy-going 'warm-up' to the subject for a broad audience rather than an exhaustive treatment for those aspiring to in-depth specialisation of the field." Such, this book is possibly perfectly complemented by the more mathematical oriented one by Wolf-Gladrow (as also the author remarks in his forword). - J.-P. Rivet and J.-P. Boon,
Lattice Gas Hydrodynamics,
Cambridge University Press (2001)
"This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in statistical physics, computational physics, hydrodynamics, applied mathematics and engineering." An in-depth outline of Lattice Gas hydrodynamics. Since it is not touching Lattice Boltzmann (which is nowadays mainly used for particle-based CFD), possibly more relevant for researchers interested in Lattice Gas. - M.C. Sukop and D.T. Thorne, Jr.,
Lattice Boltzmann Modeling - An Introduction for
Geoscientists and Engineers,
Springer (2006)
"This book represents our effort to convey the understanding of Lattice Boltzmann Methods (LBM) that we have developed over the last 4 years. This understanding is incomplete; consultation of any of the other main texts and journal articles on the subject will reveal the depth of the topic [...]. This book is aimed at our peers who may be curious about the technique or simply wish to use it as a tool[...]."
History of Science
- J. Gribbin,
Science, A History,
Penguin Books (2003)
"My aim is to outline the development of Western science, from the Rennaisance to (raughly) the end of the tewentieth century. ... Scientific progress builds step by step, and [...] when the time is ripe, two or more individuals may make the next step independently of one another. It is the luck of the draw, or historical accident, whose name gets remembered as the discoverer of a new phenomenon." - C. Cercignani,
Ludwig Boltzmann - The Man Who Trusted Atoms,
Oxford University Press (Reprint 2003)
"Our now standard picture of matter [...] tells us that ordinary macroscopic materials are mad up of atoms. Although the essentials of this picture go back to early Greek times, its general acceptance is remarkably recent. ... Boltzmann stands as a link between two other great theoretical physicists: James Clerk Maxwell in the nineteenth century and Albert Einstein in the twentieth."