scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1124096

Publication date 6 September 1998

differential geometry elementary particle physics mathematical methods quantum field theory relativity textbook

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to differential geometry (53-01) Global differential geometry (53Cxx) General theory of differentiable manifolds (58Axx)

Review text

As the author says in the Introduction, ``the purpose of these informal notes is to give an elementary introduction to a collection of mathematical methods which have a geometric flavour, and which have become very useful in relativity, quantum field theory, and elementary particle physics. They are characterised as being intrinsic, coordinate-free, component-free and global in nature. Actually, the characterisation as ``informal notes is almost too modest. Together with the subsequent collection of problems (see review Zbl 0895.53002 below), this text of 268 pages might very well be viewed as a full-fledged textbook on differential geometry, and certainly not as a bad one. Starting from elementary set theory and topology, the whole canon of differential geometry is presented. Although the text is not subdivided into ``Definitions, ``Theorems, etc., the mathematical style is not at all ``informal but rather precise and most of the relevant results are proven. Particular emphasis is put on differential form calculus and on fiber bundle theory. The title ``Geometrical methods for physics is justified insofar as all the material presented undoubtedly has some relevance for physics. However, applications to physics are not mentioned explicitly. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0878.00068].

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