Quantum Theory of the Electron Liquid

Modern electronic devices and novel materials often derive their extraordinary properties from the intriguing, complex behavior of large numbers of electrons forming what is known as an electron liquid. This book provides an in-depth introduction to the physics of the interacting electron liquid in a broad variety of systems, including metals, semiconductors, artificial nano-structures, atoms and molecules. One, two and three dimensional systems are treated separately and in parallel. Different phases of the electron liquid, from the Landau Fermi liquid to the Wigner crystal, from the Luttinger liquid to the quantum Hall liquid are extensively discussed. Both static and time-dependent density functional theory are presented in detail. Although the emphasis is on the development of the basic physical ideas and on a critical discussion of the most useful approximations, the formal derivation of the results is highly detailed and based on the simplest, most direct methods.

Author Biography

Gabriele F. Giuliani is a Professor of Physics at Purdue University, Indiana, USA. Since gaining his PhD at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy in 1983, he has held postdoctoral positions at Purdue University and Brown University. He has also conducted research at the University of Pisa, the University of Rome and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. He joined the faculty of Purdue University in 1984 and has been a Professor of Physics since 1995. Prof. Giuliani’s main areas of research are many-body theory, transport in low dimensional electronic systems and superconductivity. He has published more than 60 papers. Giovanni Vignale is the Millsap Professor of Physics at University of Missouri-Columbia. After graduating from Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa in 1979 and gaining his PhD at Northwestern University in 1983, he has carried out research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was made a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1997. Prof. Vignale’s main areas of research are many-body theory and density functional theory and he has over 100 papers in print.