Modern Quantum Field Theory

Presenting a variety of topics that are only briefly touched on in other texts, this book provides a thorough introduction to the techniques of field theory. Covering Feynman diagrams and path integrals, the author emphasizes the path integral approach, the Wilsonian approach to renormalization, and the physics of non-abelian gauge theory. It provides a thorough treatment of quark confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, topics not usually covered in other texts at this level. The Standard Model of particle physics is discussed in detail. Connections with condensed matter physics are explored, and there is a brief, but detailed, treatment of non-perturbative semi-classical methods. Ideal for graduate students in high energy physics and condensed matter physics, the book contains many problems,which help students practise the key techniques of quantum field theory.

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.

Quantum field theory, which started with Paul Dirac’s work shortly after the discovery of quantum mechanics, has produced an impressive and important array of results. Quantum electrodynamics, with its extremely accurate and well-tested predictions, and the standard model of electroweak and chromodynamic (nuclear) forces are examples of successful theories. Field theory has also been applied to a variety of phenomena in condensed matter physics, including superconductivity, superfluidity and the quantum Hall effect. The concept of the renormalization group has given us a new perspective on field theory in general and on critical phenomena in particular. At this stage, a strong case can be made that quantum field theory is the mathematical and intellectual framework for describing and understanding all physical phenomena, except possibly for a quantum theory of gravity. Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Perspective presents Professor Nair’s view of certain topics in field theory loosely knit together as it grew out of courses on field theory and particle physics taught at Columbia University and the City College of CUNY. The first few chapters, up to Chapter 12, contain material that generally goes into any course on quantum field theory, although there are a few nuances of presentation which readers may find to be different from other books. This first part of the book can be used for a general course on field theory, omitting, perhaps, the last three sections in Chapter 3, the last two in Chapter 8 and sections 6 and 7 in Chapter 10. The remaining chapters cover some of the more modern developments over the last three decades, involving topological and geometrical features. The introduction given to the mathematical basis of this part of the discussion is necessarily brief and should be accompanied by books on the relevant mathematical topics as indicated in the bibliography. Professor Nair also concentrates on developments pertinent to a better understanding of the standard model. There is no discussion of supersymmetry, supergravity, developments in field theory inspired by string theory, etc. There is also no detailed discussion of the renormalization group. Each of these topics would require a book in its own right to do justice to the topic. Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Perspective serves as a portal to so many more topics of detailed and ongoing research, referring readers to more detailed treatments for many specific topics. The book also contains extensive references, providing readers a more comprehensive perspective on the literature and the historical development of the subject. V. Parameswaran Nair is Professor of Physics at City College of The City University of New York (CUNY). Professor Nair has held Visiting Professorships at The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Rockefeller University, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Quantum field theory has undergone extraordinary developments in the last few decades and permeates many branches of modern research such as particle physics, cosmology, condensed matter, statistical mechanics and critical phenomena. This book introduces the reader to the modern developments in a manner which assumes no previous knowledge of quantum field theory, and makes it readily accessible from the advanced undergraduate level upwards. - ;The importance and the beauty of modern quantum field theory resides in the power and variety of its methods and ideas, which find application in domain.

A Modern Course in Quantum Field Theory provides a self-contained pedagogical and constructive presentation of quantum field theory. Written for advanced students, the work provides complete material for a two or three semester course and includes numerous problem exercises, some with detailed solutions.

A rigorous and self-contained text reviewing the fundamentals of quantum field theory and exploring advanced topics and modern techniques.

A modern introduction to quantum field theory for graduates, providing intuitive, physical explanations supported by real-world applications and homework problems.

This book is a modern introduction to the ideas and techniques of quantum field theory. After a brief overview of particle physics and a survey of relativistic wave equations and Lagrangian methods, the author develops the quantum theory of scalar and spinor fields, and then of gauge fields. The emphasis throughout is on functional methods, which have played a large part in modern field theory. The book concludes with a brief survey of "topological" objects in field theory and, new to this edition, a chapter devoted to supersymmetry. Graduate students in particle physics and high energy physics will benefit from this book.