Quantum Field Theory has become the universal language of most modern theoretical physics. This introductory textbook shows how this beautiful theory offers the correct mathematical framework to describe and understand the fundamental interactions of elementary particles. The book begins with a brief reminder of basic classical field theories, electrodynamics and general relativity, as well as their symmetry properties, and proceeds with the principles of quantisation following Feynman's path integral approach. Special care is used at every step to illustrate the correct mathematical formulation of the underlying assumptions. Gauge theories and the problems encountered in their quantisation are discussed in detail. The last chapters contain a full description of the Standard Model of particle physics and the attempts to go beyond it, such as grand unified theories and supersymmetry. Written for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in physics and mathematics, the book could also serve as a reference for active researchers in the field.
This book is an introduction to the modern ways of teaching classical and quantum field theories. A key tool is symmetries. For the resolution of classical theories, special attention is given to the definition of advanced or retarded potentials to ease the understanding of path integrals. The Path integral is used as the conceptual tool for defining the quantum field theories. The classical formalism is presented as a useful way to concretely compute observables that one defines in the path integral framework. The book contains special chapters which are devoted to new domains which have not been presented in other texts. They include constructive quantum field theories and topological field theory.
Quantum Field Theory has become the universal language of most modern theoretical physics. This introductory textbook shows how this beautiful theory offers the correct mathematical framework to describe and understand the fundamental interactions of elementary particles. The book begins with a brief reminder of basic classical field theories, electrodynamics and general relativity, as well as their symmetry properties, and proceeds with the principles of quantisation following Feynman's path integral approach. Special care is used at every step to illustrate the correct mathematical formulation of the underlying assumptions. Gauge theories and the problems encountered in their quantisation are discussed in detail. The last chapters contain a full description of the Standard Model of particle physics and the attempts to go beyond it, such as grand unified theories and supersymmetry. Written for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in physics and mathematics, the book could also serve as a reference for active researchers in the field.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.