One could make the claim that all branches of physics are basically generalizations of classical mechanics. It is also often the first course which is taught to physics students. The approach of this book is to construct an intermediate discipline between general courses of physics and analytical mechanics, using more sophisticated mathematical tools. The aim of this book is to prepare a self-consistent and compact text that is very useful for teachers as well as for independent study.
Author Biography
Dr. Ilya L. Shapiro is originally from the city of Pavolar, Kazakhstan. He received his Ph.D. in physical and mathematical sciences of the USSR at Tomsk State University. After obtaining his Ph.D., he worked for several years at the Department of Real Analysis at the Tomsk State Pedagogical University, which has a very strong and world-renowned research group in theoretical physics. In 1994, he became a visiting researcher at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, and he is currently a physics professor at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Brazil, where he has worked since 1996. To date he still maintains his position (on leave) at Tomsk State Pedagogical University. Dr. Shapiro is the author of more than 100 papers on quantum gravity, cosmology and quantum field theory in curved spaces. He is the author of 'Effective Action in Quantum Gravity' (IOP Publishing, 1992), one of the most cited works in the fields of quantum gravity and quantum field theory in curved space. Dr. Guilherme de Berredo-Peixoto is originally from Rio de Janiero, Brazil, and obtained his Ph.D. in physics from the Brazilian Center for Physics Research at the Federal University of Rio de Janiero in 2001. He worked as a post-doctorate fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada, and then as a professor at the State University of Santa Catarina in Lages, Brazil. He is currently an adjunct physics professor at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Brazil, where he advises several students and has authored and co-authored about 25 scientific articles.
