The notion of spontaneous symmetry breaking has proven extremely valuable, the problem is that most derivations are perturbative and heuristic. Yet mathematically precise versions do exist, but are not widely known. It is precisely the aim of his book to correct this unbalance. - It is remarkable to see how much material can actually be presented in a rigorous way (incidentally, many of the results presented are due to Strocchi himself), yet this is largely ignored, the original heuristic derivations being, as a rule, more popular. - At each step he strongly emphasizes the physical meaning and motivation of the various notions introduced [...] a book that fills a conspicuous gap in the literature, and does it rather well. It could also be a good basis for a graduate course in mathematical physics. It can be recommended to physicists as well and, of course, for physics/mathematics libraries. J.-P. Antoine, Physicalia 28/2, 2006
Strocchi's main emphasis is on the fact that the loss of symmetric behaviour requires both the non-symmetric ground states and the infinite extension of the system. It is written in a pleasant style at a level suitable for graduate students in theoretical physics. While mathematically proper, it is not forbidding for a physics readership; the author is always aware this subject is a branch of physics. It should make profitable reading for many theoretical physicists.
L.H. Ryder, J. Phys. A, 38 (2005) 9719-9730
In these notes the author explores the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking as it arises in classical and quantum systems. Despite many accounts in popular textbooks and a widespread belief, the phenomenon is rather subtle, requires an infinite set of degrees of freedom and an advanced mathematical setting of the system under investigation. [...] The mathematically oriented graduate student will certainly benefit from this thorough, rigorous and detailed investigation. G. Roepstorff, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1075, 2006
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