Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Preface to the Revised Printing
- Preface to the First Edition
- Overview. An Informal Overview of Cartan's Exterior Differential Forms, Illustrated with an Application to Cauchy's Stress Tensor
- I Manifolds, Tensors, and Exterior Forms
- II Geometry and Topology
- III Lie Groups, Bundles, and Chern Forms
- Appendix A Forms in Continuum Mechanics
- Appendix B Harmonic Chains and Kirchhoff's Circuit Laws
- Appendix C Symmetries, Quarks, and Meson Masses
- Appendix D Representations and Hyperelastic Bodies
- Appendix E Orbits and Morse–Bott Theory in Compact Lie Groups
- References
- Index
Preface to the Revised Printing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Preface to the Revised Printing
- Preface to the First Edition
- Overview. An Informal Overview of Cartan's Exterior Differential Forms, Illustrated with an Application to Cauchy's Stress Tensor
- I Manifolds, Tensors, and Exterior Forms
- II Geometry and Topology
- III Lie Groups, Bundles, and Chern Forms
- Appendix A Forms in Continuum Mechanics
- Appendix B Harmonic Chains and Kirchhoff's Circuit Laws
- Appendix C Symmetries, Quarks, and Meson Masses
- Appendix D Representations and Hyperelastic Bodies
- Appendix E Orbits and Morse–Bott Theory in Compact Lie Groups
- References
- Index
Summary
In this reprinting I have introduced a new appendix, Appendix B, Harmonic Chains and Kirchhoff's Circuit Laws. This appendix deals with a finite-dimensional version of Hodge's theory, the subject of Chapter 14, and can be read at any time after Chapter 13. It includes a more geometrical view of cohomology, dealt with entirely by matrices and elementary linear algebra. A bonus of this viewpoint is a systematic “geometrical” description of the Kirchhoff laws and their applications to direct current circuits, first considered from roughly this viewpoint by Hermann Weyl in 1923.
I have corrected a number of errors and misprints, many of which were kindly brought to my attention by Professor Friedrich Heyl.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my great appreciation to my editor, Dr. Alan Harvey of Cambridge University Press.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Geometry of PhysicsAn Introduction, pp. xxiii - xxivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011