Introduction To Field Theory

Acclaimed by American Mathematical Monthly as "an excellent introduction,"this treatment ranges from basic definitions to important results and applications, introducing both the spirit and techniques of abstract algebra. It develops the elementary properties of rings and fields, explores extension fields and Galois theory, and examines numerous applications. 1982 edition.

An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory is a textbook intended for the graduate physics course covering relativistic quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, and Feynman diagrams. The authors make these subjects accessible through carefully worked examples illustrating the technical aspects of the subject, and intuitive explanations of what is going on behind the mathematics. After presenting the basics of quantum electrodynamics, the authors discuss the theory of renormalization and its relation to statistical mechanics, and introduce the renormalization group. This discussion sets the stage for a discussion of the physical principles that underlie the fundamental interactions of elementary particle physics and their description by gauge field theories.

This advanced textbook supplies graduate students with a primer in quantum theory. A variety of processes are discussed with concepts such as potentials, classical current distributions, prescribed external fields dealt with in the framework of relativistic quantum mechanics. Then, in an introduction to field theory, the author emphasizes the deduction of the said potentials or currents. A modern presentation of the subject together with many exercises, unique in its unusual underlying concept of combining relativistic quantum mechanics with basic quantum field theory.

The book deals with quantum field theory which is the language of the modern physics of elementary particles. Written based on university lectures given by the author, the book provides treatments and technical details of quantum field theory, which will be particularly useful for students. The book starts with the quantization of the most important kind of free fields (the scalar, the spin-1/2 and the photon fields). It is then followed by a detailed account of the symmetry properties of a field theory and a discussion on global and local symmetries and the spontaneous breaking of symmetries. Other topics discussed include the perturbation theory, one-loop effects for quantum electrodynamics, and renormalization properties.

Hands-on practice in solving quantum physics problems Quantum Physics is the study of the behavior of matter and energy at the molecular, atomic, nuclear, and even smaller microscopic levels. Like the other titles in our For Dummies Workbook series, Quantum Physics Workbook For Dummies allows you to hone your skills at solving the difficult and often confusing equations you encounter in this subject. Explains equations in easy-to-understand terms Harmonic Oscillator Operations, Angular Momentum, Spin, Scattering Theory Using a proven practice-and-review approach, Quantum Physics Workbook For Dummies is all you need to get up to speed in problem solving!

The rise of quantum electrodynamics (QED) made possible a number of excellent textbooks on quantum field theory in the 1960s. However, the rise of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and the Standard Model has made it urgent to have a fully modern textbook for the 1990s and beyond. Building on the foundation of QED, Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Introduction presents a clear and comprehensive discussion of the gauge revolution and the theoretical and experimental evidence which makes the Standard Model the leading theory of subatomic phenomena. The book is divided into three parts: Part I, Fields and Renormalization, lays a solid foundation by presenting canonical quantization, Feynman rules and scattering matrices, and renormalization theory. Part II, Gauge Theory and the Standard Model, focuses on the Standard Model and discusses path integrals, gauge theory, spontaneous symmetry breaking, the renormalization group, and BPHZ quantization. Part III, Non-perturbative Methods and Unification, discusses more advanced methods which now form an essential part of field theory, such as critical phenomena, lattice gauge theory, instantons, supersymmetry, quantum gravity, supergravity, and superstrings.

This advanced, accessible textbook on effective field theories uses worked examples to bring this important topic to a wider audience.

This textbook provides an introduction to string field theory (SFT). String theory is usually formulated in the worldsheet formalism, which describes a single string (first-quantization). While this approach is intuitive and could be pushed far due to the exceptional properties of two-dimensional theories, it becomes cumbersome for some questions or even fails at a more fundamental level. These motivations have led to the development of SFT, a description of string theory using the field theory formalism (second-quantization). As a field theory, SFT provides a rigorous and constructive formulation of string theory. The main focus of the book is the construction of the closed bosonic SFT. The accent is put on providing the reader with the foundations, conceptual understanding and intuition of what SFT is. After reading this book, the reader is able to study the applications from the literature. The book is organized in two parts. The first part reviews the notions of the worldsheet theory that are necessary to build SFT (worldsheet path integral, CFT and BRST quantization). The second part starts by introducing general concepts of SFT from the BRST quantization. Then, it introduces off-shell string amplitudes before providing a Feynman diagrams interpretation from which the building blocks of SFT are extracted. After constructing the closed SFT, the author outlines the proofs of several important properties such as background independence, unitarity and crossing symmetry. Finally, the generalization to the superstring is also discussed.