Lectures on Quantum Field Theory

This book consists of the lectures for a two-semester course on quantum field theory, and as such is presented in a quite informal and personal manner. The course starts with relativistic one-particle systems, and develops the basics of quantum field theory with an analysis of the representations of the Poincare group. Canonical quantization is carried out for scalar, fermion, Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories. Covariant quantization of gauge theories is also carried out with a...
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This book consists of the lectures for a two-semester course on quantum field theory, and as such is presented in a quite informal and personal manner. The course starts with relativistic one-particle systems, and develops the basics of quantum field theory with an analysis of the representations of the Poincare group. Canonical quantization is carried out for scalar, fermion, Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories. Covariant quantization of gauge theories is also carried out with a detailed description of the BRST symmetry. The Higgs phenomenon and the standard model of electroweak interactions are also developed systematically. Regularization and (BPHZ) renormalization of field theories as well as gauge theories are discussed in detail, leading to a derivation of the renormalization group equation. In addition, two chapters one on the Dirac quantization of constrained systems and another on discrete symmetries are included for completeness, although these are not covered in the two-semester course.Contents: Relativistic EquationsSolutions of the Dirac EquationProperties of the Dirac EquationRepresentations of Lorentz and Poincare GroupsFree Klein Gordon Field TheorySelf-Interacting Scalar Field TheoryComplex Scalar Field TheoryDirac Field TheoryMaxwell Field TheoryDirac Method for Constrained SystemsDiscrete SymmetriesYang Mills TheoryBRST Invariance and Its ConsequencesHiggs Phenomenon and the Standard ModelRegularization of Feynman DiagramsRenormalization TheoryRenormalization Group and Equation
Readership: Graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics.
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