PhysicsQuantum Field Theory I, spring 2010
General Information
This is a 10 hp course on Quantum Field Theory. It is an introductory course covering essentially the first part of the book by Peskin and Schroeder (see below). The course is scheduled for the second part of the semester (period 4).
Contents
The Klein-Gordon and Dirac fields and their quantization, Interactions and Feynman rules, Tree-level processes in quantum electrodynamics, Radiative corrections and the concept of renormalizationPrerequisites
Relativistic Quantum MechanicsFormat
The course will consist of approximately 20 lectures (2x45min) and 5 problem solving sessions.
Preliminary schedule
The course will start on March 22 and then continue with 3 lectures per week until the first week of June. For a preliminary schedule see here| Date | Time | Place | Subject | Peskin and Schroeder | Hand-in exercise |
| Mon 22/3 | 13-15 | 11167 | Classical field theory, Noether's theorem | Chapter 2.1-2.2 | |
| Tue 23/3 | 10-12 | 11167 | Klein-Gordon field, causality and progator | Chapter 2.3-2.4 | |
| Thu 25/3 | 13-15 | 11167 | Dirac field, Weyl representation | Chapter 3.1-3.2 | |
| Mon 12/4 | 15-17 | 11167 | Free particle solutions, Dirac bilinears | Chapter 3.3-3.4 | nr 1 |
| Wed 14/4 | 8-10 | 11167 | Selected exercises chapter 2 | - | |
| Fri 16/4 | 10-12 | 11167 | Quantization and discrete symmetries | Chapter 3.5 | |
| Tue 20/4 | 10-12 | 11167 | Discrete symmetries, Perturbation theory | Chapter 3.6-4.1 | |
| Wed 21/4 | 10-12 | 4003 | Correlation functions, Wick's theorem | Chapter 4.2-4.3 | |
| Fri 23/4 | 10-12 | 11167 | Feynman diagrams | Chapter 4.4 | |
| Mon 26/4 | 13-15 | 11167 | Selected exercises chapter 3 | - | nr 2 |
| Tue 27/4 | 10-12 | 11167 | Cross-sections, S-matrix from Feynman diagrams | Chapter 4.5 | |
| Thu 29/4 | 13-15 | 80109 | S-matrix from Feynman diagrams | Chapter 4.6 | |
| Mon 3/5 | 13-15 | 11167 | Fermions | Chapter 4.7 | |
| Tue 4/5 | 8-10 | 11167 | Fermions cont'd and QED intro | Chapter 4.8-5.1 | nr 3 |
| Thu 6/5 | 13-15 | 11167 | Selected exercises chapter 4 | - | |
| Mon 10/5 | 10-12 | 12167 | e+e- -> mu+mu-: helicity structure | Chapter 5.1-5.2 | |
| Tue 11/5 | 8-10 | 11167 | Non-relativistic limit, e-mu- -> e-mu- | Chapter 5.3-5.4 | |
| Wed 12/5 | 8-10 | 11167 | Compton scattering | Chapter 5.5 | nr 4 |
| Mon 17/5 | 13-15 | 11167 | Bremsstrahlung and electron vertex correction | Chapter 6.1-6.2 | |
| Thu 20/5 | 13-15 | 12167 | Selected exercises chapter 5 | - | |
| Fri 21/5 | 8-10 | 12167 | Evaluation of electron vertex correction | Chapter 6.3 | |
| Mon 24/5 | 13-15 | 11167 | Electron vertex correction: infrared divergences | Chapter 6.4 | nr 5 |
| Tue 25/5 | 8-10 | 11167 | Electron vertex cont'd | Chapter 6.5 | |
| Wed 26/5 | 10-12 | 11167 | Field strength renormalisation | Chapter 7.1 | |
| Thu 27/5 | 15-17 | 11167 | LSZ-reduction and the optical theorem | Chapter 7.2-7.3 | |
| Tue 1/6 | 10-12 | 11167 | Selected exercises chapter 6 | - | |
| Wed 2/6 | 13-15 | 11167 | Ward identity and renormalisation of the electric charge | Chapter 7.4-7.5 |
Suggested problems
- Download suggested problems for chapter 2 here
- Download suggested problems for chapter 3 here
- Download suggested problems for chapter 4 here
- Download suggested problems for chapter 5 here
- Download suggested problems for chapter 6 here
Examination
The examination will be in the form of hand-in exercisesLiterature
The main book will be
- M. E. Peskin and D. V. Schroeder, An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, 1995 (ISBN 0201503972), part I (chapter 1-7)
- F. Mandl, G. Shaw, Quantum Field Theory
- T. Banks, Modern Quantum Field Theory