Download or read book Thermal Quantum Field Theory: Algebraic Aspects And Applications written by Faqir C Khanna and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2009-02-06 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph presents recent developments in quantum field theory at finite temperature. By using Lie groups, ideas from thermal theory are considered with concepts of symmetry, allowing for applications not only to quantum field theory but also to transport theory, quantum optics and statistical mechanics. This includes an analysis of geometrical and topological aspects of spatially confined systems with applications to the Casimir effect, superconductivity and phase transitions. Finally, some developments in open systems are also considered. The book provides a unified picture of the fundamental aspects in thermal quantum field theory and their applications, and is important to the field as a result, since it combines several diverse ideas that lead to a better understanding of different areas of physics.