Quantum field theory for the gifted amateur / Tom Lancaster, Stephen J. Blundell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lancaster, Tom, author.

Blundell, Stephen, 1967- author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quantum field theory.

Quantum field theory--Amateurs' manuals.

Quantum field theory--Problems, exercises, etc.

Genre:

Lehrbuch.

Handbooks and manuals.

Problems and exercises.

Physical Description:

xvii, 485 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014.

Summary:

Quantum field theory is arguably the most far-reaching and beautiful physical theory ever constructed, with aspects more stringently tested and verified to greater precision than any other theory in physics. Unfortunately, the subject has gained a notorious reputation for difficulty, with forbidding looking mathematics and a peculiar diagrammatic language described in an array of unforgiving, weighty textbooks aimed firmly at aspiring professionals. However, quantum field theory is too important, too beautiful, and too engaging to be restricted to the professionals. This book on quantum field theory is designed to be different. It is written by experimental physicists and aims to provide the interested amateur with a bridge from undergraduate physics to quantum field theory. The imagined reader is a gifted amateur, possessing a curious and adaptable mind, looking to be told an entertaining and intellectually stimulating story, but who will not feel patronised if a few mathematical niceties are spelled out in detail. Using numerous worked examples, diagrams, and careful physically motivated explanations, this book will smooth the path towards understanding the radically different and revolutionary view of the physical world that quantum field theory provides, and which all physicists should have the opportunity to experience.

Contents:

Lagrangians

Simple harmonic oscillators

Occupation number representation

Making second quantization work

Continuous systems

A first stab at relativistic quantum mechanics

Examples of Lagrangians, or how to write down a theory

The passage of time

Quantum mechanical transformations

Symmetry

Canonical quantization of fields

Examples of canonical quantization

Fields with many components and massive electromagnetism

Gauge fields and gauge theory

Discrete transformations

Propagators and Green's functions

Propagators and fields

The S-matrix

Expanding the S-matrix : Feynman diagrams

Scattering theory

Statistical physics : a crash course

The generating functional for fields

Path integrals : I said to him, "You're crazy"

Field integrals

Statistical field theory

Broken symmetry

Coherent states

Grassmann numbers : coherent states and the path integral for fermions

Topological objects

Topological field theory

Renormalization, quasiparticles and the Fermi surface

Renormalization : the problem and its solution

Renormalization in action : propagators and Feynman diagrams

The renormalization group

Ferromagnetism : a renormalization group tutorial

The Dirac equation

How to transform a spinor

The quantum Dirac field

A rough guide to quantum electrodynamics

QED scattering : three famous cross-sections

The renormalization of QED and two great results

Superfluids

The many-body problem and the metal

Superconductors

The fractional quantum Hall fluid

Non-abelian gauge theory

The Weinberg-Salam model

Majorana fermions

Magnetic monopoles

Instantons, tunnelling and the end of the world.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 467-472) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

019969933X

9780199699339

0199699321

9780199699322

OCLC:

859651399