Classical Field Theory

by Horaƫiu Năstase

Classical field theory predicts how physical fields interact with matter, and is a logical precursor to quantum field theory. This introduction focuses purely on modern classical field theory, helping graduates and researchers build an understanding of classical field theory methods before embarking on future studies in quantum field theory. It describes various classical methods for fields with negligible quantum effects, for instance electromagnetism and gravitational fields. It focuses on solutions that take advantage of classical field theory methods as opposed to applications or geometric properties. Other fields covered includes fermionic fields, scalar fields and Chern–Simons fields. Methods such as symmetries, global and local methods, Noether theorem and energy momentum tensor are also discussed, as well as important solutions of the classical equations, in particular soliton solutions.

Genres: Physics

480 pages, Hardcover

Published April 25, 2019

Reviews

[Adam Lantos · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional breadth of content, yet people of different levels will have vastly different experiences.

When I first read the title of this book, I thought it'd be on more conventional classical field theory, the one you learn before embarking on Quantum Field theory. Yet, upon opening it, I found a selection of topics that are very rich (with regards to physics) and very relevant to modern research.

There are a lot of topological subjects, which you rarely find in a self-contained document. I find the writing to be more clear and pedagogical than the author's other book "Sting theory in Condensed Matter", which I initially found incredibly dense. This book is different. The author tries his best to cover a lot of ground quickly and he mostly succeeds.

Bear in mind that even an MSc student might struggle with some of its chapters, as quite a few of them contain details (especially mathematical) that are quite advanced, and while the author does his best to explain them briefly, understanding them requires more than basics knowledge of MSc physics and math. For example, I don't think the average MSc in Physics will find the very brief discussion on homotopy groups very enlightening, but with just a bit more background, the author can teach you the best, which is the best any author could do for this selection of topics, so I consider this the greatest triumph of it, along with its excellent selection of material.

[Superconformal Hassaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read. Will write the rest of the review when I get free. Thanks.