Preparing for the Summer School

There are a number of things students can do beforehand to make their participation in the Summer School more rewarding. We have some recommendations below, including some reading and computing exercises.

Recommended Reading Sources

1. Statistical mechanics: a survival guide, Mike Glazer and Justin Wark, Oxford 2001. Afraid of Stat. Mech? Then tremble no more!
2. Statistical Mechanics an Introduction, David H. Trevena, Harwood Publishing Ltd, 2003. A useful primer for the School.
3. An introduction to Statistical Thermodynamics, R. Gasser and W. Richards, World Scientific, 1995. Another good primer for the School.
4. Statistical Mechanics, D. A. McQuarrie, Harper Collins, 1976. An excellent book on the subject covering both quantum and classical treatments.
5. An introduction to statistical thermodynamics, Terrell L. Hill, Dover 1986. A standard introduction, also good on both quantum and classical treatments.
6. Statistical Mechanics of Nonequilibrium Liquids, D. Evans and G. Morriss. An essential text for researchers in nonequilibrium systems. Now out of print but pdf files of all chapters can be obtained from here.
7. Statistical mechanics : a concise introduction for chemists, B. Widom, Cambridge, New York 2002. A good, informative introduction to statistical mechanics.
8. Computational Statistical Mechanics, W. Hoover. Published online here (warning 20Mbytes download!)
9. Molecular Modelling and Simulation, Tamar Schlick. Springer Verlag, 2002. Recommended by Xavier Daura, advanced course lecturer on biosimulation.
10. Computer Simulation of Liquids, M.P. Allen and D.J. Tildesley, Oxford 1989. A classic text on molecular simulation. Good on the nitty-gritty details.
11. Understanding Molecular Simulation, D. Frenkel and B. Smit, Academic Press 2002. An excellent book with a good handle on some advanced topics.
12. The Art of Molecular Dynamics Simulation, D.C. Rapaport, Cambridge 2004. If you are C programmer, this is the one for you!
13. Classical Mechanics, H. Goldstein, Addison Wesley 1980. One of the most thorough, yet readable, books on classical mechanics.
14. Theory of Simple Liquids, J.-P. Hansen and I.R. McDonald, Academic Press 1986. Thorough, dense, but highly rewarding to those wanting to penetrate deep into the theory of condensed matter systems.

Recommended Activities

1. A UNIX Tutorial . If you know nothing about UNIX, start here!
2. A UNIX Tutorial for beginners. Somewhere else to learn UNIX.
3. Install CygWin on your PC. Put a UNIX simulator on your PC and gain a valuable resource.
4. Install Java on your PC. Take the first step into object oriented programming!
5. Install VMD on your PC. All molecular dynamicists should have this excellent graphics package!