Textbooks
There are many good textbooks available. We will closely follow, for example, these two
Modern Physics
https://books.google.se/books/about/Modern_Physics.html?id=JKhdSAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y
Modern Physics
Raymond Serway, Clement Moses, Curt Moyer
https://books.google.se/books/about/Modern_Physics.html?id=Yfo3rnt3bkEC&redir_esc=y
Textbooks suggested here
https://www.nhn.ou.edu/~jeffery/course/c_modern/book.html
- Beiser, Arthur, et al. 2003, 4th edition.
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill
- Publisher price: $, 560 pages.
- Amazon: Beiser. Selling $138.04 or lower for used. Reviews are all over the place.
- Physics Today seems to have nothing on this book.
- Eisberg, R., & Resnick, R., 1985, Quantum Physics, 2nd edition $133.95, 864 pages.
- Publisher: Wiley
- Amazon. $124.95. Lots of reader reviews. Generally positive and some very high and a few negative. One makes the point that it is a modern physics book with a lot of QM, not an intro quantum book.
- Wilson, Oklahoma State University. Liked it, but thinks it a bit dated and a bit too high a level.
- Greene, Brian, 2004, The Fabric of the Cosmos $16.95, 592 pages. Not a modern physics book, but a useful supplement to a modern physics course---until it inevitably dates.
- Publisher: Random House (Vintate Books division)
- Amazon. $11.53. 192 reviews with 4.5 star average and professional reviews are good and I think it's pretty nifty.
- Harris, Randy, 2008, 2nd edition, University of California, Davis.
- Publisher: Pearson/Addison-Wesley and taken over from Prentice Hall.
- Publisher price: $128.40, 656 pages.
- Amazon: Harris, Randy. No reader review. Long editorial description.
- Physics Today: review of an earlier book. This book may have been the first edition under another name. Not favorable. This is all on Harris from Physics Today.
- Krane, Kenneth, 1995, 2nd edition.
- Publisher: Wiley.
- Publisher price: $120.95, 608 pages.
- Amazon: Krane, Kenneth. Selling 103.32 or lower for used. Amazon reviews are very mixed. Some thought it hit the mark. Some thought it was weak.
- Physics Today seems to have nothing on this book.
- Lawden, 1982, Introduction to Tensor Calculus, Relativity, and Cosmology Dover, $15.95. It is in stock. This is a not a modern physics book, but a book on relativity.Amazon: Lawden: $10.85
- Only 37 copies. Favorably reviewed, but the formalism is considered a bit old-fashioned it seems---that goes for me too.
- N. David Mermin, 2005, It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity (hardcover) Amazon, $29.95. This seems to be the update of Mermin's older book Space and Time in Special Relativity which is an excellent popular introduction to special relativity: the necessary arguments and equations are presented with clarity and simplicity.
- Pfeffer, Jeremy, & Nir, Shlomo, 1st edition, 2001 and only in paperback for $31.00. An interesting book in some ways. But I think it has too little substance for a modern physics course and the presentation is a bit idiosyncratic. An instructor would have to keep supplementing and apologizing for it.
- Publisher: World Scientific.
- Amazon: Pfeffer. Selling $78.00 hardcopy or lower for used. Only two in stock. One review. It's a rave.
- Amazon: Pfeffer: paperback version: $39.00.
- Physics Today seems to have nothing on this book.
- Wilson, Oklahoma State University. Liked it, but said for non-calculus level.
- Serway, Raymond A., et al. 2004, 3rd edition.
- Publisher: Thomson Education, but they have many names. The reviews are all over the place. Modern physics is neither fish nor fowl and so it's hard to please everyone.
- Publisher price: ?, 600 pages.
- Amazon: Serway. Selling $49.11 or lower for used. No reviews
- Physics Today seems to have nothing on this book.
- Taylor & Zafiratos, 2004,
- Publisher: Prentice Hall
- Publisher price: $136, 736 pages.
- Amazon: Taylor. Selling $125.40 or lower for used. Reviews are all over and suggest it is low-brow.
- Wilson, Oklahoma The one they use.
- Thornton & Rex 2003, 4th edition.
- Publisher: Thompson
- Publisher price: $?, 640 pages. The publisher also does Serway. So which is their favorite.
- Amazon: Thornton. Selling $110.86 or lower for used. But some reviewers liked it. But other said a poor choice.
- Physics Today seems to have nothing on this book.
- Tipler, Paul, et al. 2003, 4th edition.
- Publisher: W.H. Freeman
- Publisher price: $121.63, 700 pages.
- Amazon: Tipler. Selling $107.95 or lower for used. Kieran Mullen disfavored for the same thing as George: too much stuff is omitted and put on-line. But some reviewers liked it.
- Physics Today seems to have nothing on this book.
- Wikibooks: Modern Physics. Maybe a good supplement.