MODERN CLASSICAL PHYSICS

This first-year, graduate-level text and reference book covers the fundamental concepts and twenty-first-century applications of six major areas of classical physics that every masters- or PhD-level physicist should be exposed to, but often isn't: statistical physics, optics (waves of all sorts), elastodynamics, fluid mechanics, plasma physics, and special and general relativity and cosmology. Growing out of a full-year course that the eminent researchers Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford taught at Caltech for almost three decades, this book is designed to broaden the training of physicists. Its six main topical sections are also designed so they can be used in separate courses, and the book provides an invaluable reference for researchers.

Kip S. Thorne, co-winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics, is the Feynman Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at Caltech. His books include Gravitation and Black Holes and Time Warps.
Roger D. Blandford, co-winner of the 2016 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy, is the Luke Blossom Professor of Physics and the founding director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University. Both are members of the National Academy of Sciences.