Probability in Physics - An Introductory Guide

Description

This textbook presents an introduction to the use of probability in physics, treating introductory ideas of both statistical physics and of statistical inference, as well the importance of probability in information theory, quantum mechanics, and stochastic processes, in a unified manner. The book also presents a harmonised view of frequentist and Bayesian approaches to inference, emphasising their complementary value. The aim is to steer a middle course between the "cookbook" style and an overly dry mathematical statistics style. The treatment is driven by real physics examples throughout, but developed with a level of mathematical clarity and rigour appropriate to mid-career physics undergraduates. Exercises and solutions are included. Andy Lawrence is the Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests are in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), observational cosmology, survey astronomy, and e-science (the Virtual Observatory). He has been teaching an undergraduate course on Probability in Physics with a new angle. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and author of the Springer book Astronomical Measurement. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxiv Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Randomness and Probability (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 3-18 Distributions, Moments, and Errors (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 19-38 Front Matter ....Pages 39-39 Counting the Ways: Arrangements and Subsets (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 41-53 Counting Statistics: Binomial and Poisson Distributions (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 55-68 Combining Many Factors: The Gaussian Distribution (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 69-92 Distributions Arising from Random Processes in Time (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 93-112 Front Matter ....Pages 113-114 Hypothesis Testing (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 115-136 Parameter Estimation (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 137-158 Inference with Two Variables: Correlation Testing and Line Fitting (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 159-181 Model Fitting (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 183-206 Front Matter ....Pages 207-207 Information, Uncertainty, and Surprise (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 209-231 Erratic Time Series (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 233-259 Probability in Quantum Physics (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 261-284 Entropy, Complexity, and the Arrow of Time (Andy Lawrence)....Pages 285-309 Back Matter ....Pages 311-347