Lectures of Sidney Coleman on Quantum Field Theory (ePub)

'Sidney Coleman was the master teacher of quantum field theory. All of us who knew him became his students and disciples. Sidney’s legendary course remains fresh and bracing, because he chose his topics with a sure feel for the essential, and treated them with elegant economy.'Frank WilczekNobel Laureate in Physics 2004Sidney Coleman was a physicist's physicist. He is largely unknown outside of the theoretical physics community, and known only by reputation to the younger generation. He was an unusually effective teacher, famed for his wit, his insight and his encyclopedic knowledge of the field to which he made many important contributions. There are many first-rate quantum field theory books (the venerable Bjorken and Drell, the more modern Itzykson and Zuber, the now-standard Peskin and Schroeder, and the recent Zee), but the immediacy of Prof. Coleman's approach and his ability to present an argument simply without sacrificing rigor makes his book easy to read and ideal for the student. Part of the motivation in producing this book is to pass on the work of this outstanding physicist to later generations, a record of his teaching that he was too busy to leave himself.Contents:Adding Special Relativity to Quantum MechanicsThe Simplest Many-Particle TheoryConstructing a Scalar Quantum FieldThe Method of the Missing BoxSymmetries and Conservation Laws I. Spacetime SymmetriesSymmetries and Conservation Laws II. Internal SymmetriesIntroduction to Perturbation Theory and ScatteringPerturbation Theory I. Wick DiagramsPerturbation Theory II. Divergences and CountertermsMass Renormalization and Feynman DiagramsScattering I. Mandelstam Variables, CPT and Phase SpaceScattering II. ApplicationsGreen's Functions and Heisenberg FieldsThe LSZ FormalismRenormalization I. Determination of CountertermsRenormalization II. Generalization and ExtensionUnstable ParticlesRepresentations of the Lorentz GroupThe Dirac Equation I. Constructing a LagrangianThe Dirac Equation II. SolutionsThe Dirac Equation III. Quantization and Feynman RulesCPT and Fermi FieldsRenormalization of Spin-1⁄2 TheoriesIsospinCoping with Infinities: Regularization and RenormalizationVector FieldsElectromagnetic Interactions and Minimal CouplingFunctional Integration and Feynman RulesExtending the Methods of Functional IntegralsElectrodynamics with a Massive PhotonThe Faddeev Popov PrescriptionGenerating Functionals and Green's FunctionsThe Renormalization of QEDTwo Famous Results in QEDConfronting Experiment with QEDIntroducing SU(3)Irreducible Multiplets in SU(3)SU(3): Proofs and ApplicationsBroken SU(3) and the Naive Quark ModelWeak Interactions and Their CurrentsCurrent Algebra and PCACCurrent Algebra and Pion ScatteringA First Look at Spontaneous Symmetry BreakingPerturbative Spontaneous Symmetry BreakingTopics in Spontaneous Symmetry BreakingThe Higgs Mechanism and Non-Abelian Gauge FieldsThe Higgs Mechanism and Non-Abelian Gauge FieldsThe Glashow Salam Weinberg Model I. A Theory of LeptonsThe Glashow Salam Weinberg Model II. Adding QuarksThe Renormalization GroupReadership: Graduate students and academics interested in quantum field theory.Key Features:Based on Coleman's own handwritten notes, two sets of notes from former graduate students, homework, solutions, past examinationsSome missing steps addressed in derivations or arguments, maintaining as far as possible Coleman's own language