Skip to main content
1 of 1
Post Made Community Wiki
Vectornaut
  • 2.3k
  • 2
  • 26
  • 24

Jeffrey Rabin has written a lightning-fast introduction to physics designed for exactly the audience you describe: people with "the mathematical background of a first-year graduate student," but "[no] prior knowledge of physics beyond F = ma."

It's a bit single-minded, because Rabin's ultimate goal is quantum field theory, but it hits most of the important subjects in modern physics, including:

  • Classical mechanics (Newtonian, Lagrangian, and Hamiltonian formalisms)
  • Classical field theory
  • The Lorentz group (presumably that means some special relativity?)
  • Quantum mechanics (not sure how in-depth this section is, but it's better than nothing)

The only glaring omissions I can see are classical electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, and general relativity.

You can find Rabin's introduction in the book Geometry and Quantum Field Theory.

Vectornaut
  • 2.3k
  • 2
  • 26
  • 24