An Invitation to Quantum Field Theory (Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol. 839) - Softcover

Alvarez-Gaumé, Luis; Vázquez-Mozo, Miguel A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3642237274 ISBN 13: 9783642237270

Publisher: Springer, 2011

Synopsis

This fresh approach to teaching Quantum Field Theory examines challenging concepts with a minimum of technical detail. The book treats the discussion of the main ideas as more important than the presentation of technical mathematical details.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This book provides an introduction to Quantum Field Theory (QFT) at an elementary level―with only special relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics as prerequisites. For this fresh approach to teaching QFT, based on numerous lectures and courses given by the authors, a representative sample of topics has been selected containing some of the more innovative, challenging or subtle concepts. They are presented with a minimum of technical details, the discussion of the main ideas being more important than the presentation of the typically very technical mathematical details necessary to obtain the final results.

 Special attention is given to the realization of symmetries in particle physics: global and local symmetries, explicit, spontaneously broken, and anomalous continuous symmetries, as well as discrete symmetries. Beyond providing an overview of the standard model of the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions and the current understanding of the origin of mass, the text enumerates the general features of renormalization theory as well as providing a cursory description of effective field theories and the problem of naturalness in physics. Among the more advanced topics the reader will find are an outline of the first principles derivation of the CPT theorem and the spin-statistics connection.

As indicated by the title, the main aim of this text is to motivate the reader to study QFT by providing a self-contained and approachable introduction to the most exciting and challenging aspects of this successful theoretical framework.

Review

From the reviews:

“The new work by Álvarez-Gaumé and Vázquez-Mozo looks like a good and concise introduction for the particle physics phenomenologist. ... The book is very compact ... and well written. ... The reader who takes it seriously can definitely learn a lot from this nice new book.” (Ilya Shapiro, Mathematical Reviews, September, 2013)

“This book provides an introduction to Quantum Field Theory at an elementary level. ... Students will like this fresh approach to QFT based on lectures and courses given by the authors. ... readers whose acquaintance with mathematics is at an elementary ... level are likely to be the main beneficiaries of this book.” (Gert Roepstorff, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1232, 2012)

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 3642237274
• ISBN 13: 9783642237270
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 305