Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21090 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 864 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent book but with a deceptive title
An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory is an excellent book, I have read it once and I keep going back to it when I need something, and that happens very often. And I have never been disappointed so far: the book has got everything I need. However, the title is very deceptive: it is not a Quantum Field Theory primer, it is a book that one can read (and enjoy!) only after reading easier books, in this respect I find Michele Maggiore's "A Modern Introduction to Quantum Field Theory" (OUP 2004) and the classical "Field Theory: a Modern Primer" by Pierre Ramond (Perseus, 2nd edition 1999) more suitable.

NOT FOR FIRST TIMERS!!!
If your taking your first course in quantum field theory and feeling excited like you want to buy a book about it...don't buy this one. There are plenty of good clear books and internet resources out there that will give much more clarity about Dirac field, K.G. field, quantisation, perturbation either by canonical form or path integrals right up to renormalisation and regularisation. For example, the path integral approach in A.ZEE Intro to quantum field theory is a good place to get conceptual understanding.

After you have been studying the subject for a while and actually want a deeper mathematical and technical understand then this book is a keeper!! It is substantial and technical book, more for the researcher than the MSci or undergrad student. Also, this book looks good on the shelf; hardcover and thick. It is the kind of book that once you understand the subject you want a good book to refer to, but it isn't the kind of book to learn from.

A modern primer of QFT.
Quantum Field Theory is a theory of modern physics which combines together quantum mechanics and special relativity and thus can be thought of as quantum mechanics in four space-time dimensions. Since its advent in the 1920's by the pioneering works of Dirac et al. the theory has grown to be a huge area encompassing both electrodynamics (QED) and the standard model of particle physics (QCD). The text by Schroeder and Peskin (first published in the U.S. by Westview Press, 1995) is a lucid, modern introduction and reference to this important subject which is nowadays highly indispensible for any serious student or researcher of modern physics.

The book is divided into three parts: In the first part, the authors introduce the Feynman diagrams as a prelude to QED and continue on by an elaboration of the Klein-Gordon equation, the Dirac field, perturbation theory and radiative corrections. In the second part which mainly deals with renormalization, discussion starts out with a survey of the functional methods, followed by the counting of ultraviolet divergences, the role of symmetry and the concept of effective action, the renormalization group (Wilson's approach and CS equation), and finally there is a foray into the condensed matter physics via the topic of critical exponents and nonlinear sigma models. In the third and final part, the focus shifts to the non-abelian gauge theories, their invariance, quantization, QCD, operator products, anomalies and spontaneous symmetry breaking (Higgs mechanism, G-W-S electroweak theory) culminating in a chapter on QFT at the frontier, outlining a brief on grand unified theories and supersymmetry, also pointing out some references for further study.

The senior author of the text has been an affiliate of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) who has learned field theory from three of its master's, S. Coleman, S. Weinberg, and K. Wilson. The authors' collective intent --following the example set by Bjorken and Drell-- has been to strike a perfect balance between abstract formalism, intuitive explanations, and practical calculations. There are also a large number of explicit calculations carried out in the text. Due to tactical considerations and space limitations however, the experimental developments of QFT, proof of some of the more advanced results, and an account of the history of the subject have been mostly left out to the other references. Having said all this, one other source which is surely worth taking up along with Schroeder and Peskin is a text by Michio Kaku, published by the Oxford University Press (1993) which contains short introductory chapters on several advanced topics.