Lectures of Quantum Field Theory

by Ashok Das

This book consists of the lectures for a two-semester course on quantum field theory, and as such is presented in a quite informal and personal manner. The course starts with relativistic one-particle systems, and develops the basics of quantum field theory with an analysis of the representations of the Poincaré group. Canonical quantization is carried out for scalar, fermion, Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories. Covariant quantization of gauge theories is also carried out with a detailed description of the BRST symmetry. The Higgs phenomenon and the standard model of electroweak interactions are also developed systematically. Regularization and (BPHZ) renormalization of field theories as well as gauge theories are discussed in detail, leading to a derivation of the renormalization group equation. In addition, two chapters - one on the Dirac quantization of constrained systems and another on discrete symmetries - are included for completeness, although these are not covered in the two-semester course. Relativistic Equations; Solutions of the Dirac Equation; Properties of the Dirac Equation; Representations of Lorentz and Poincaré Groups; Free Klein Gordon Field Theory; Self-Interacting Scalar Field Theory; Complex Scalar Field Theory; Dirac Field Theory; Maxwell Field Theory; Dirac Method for Constrained Systems; Discrete Symmetries; Yang Mills Theory; BRST Invariance and Its Consequences; Higgs Phenomenon and the Standard Model; Regularization of Feynman Diagrams; Renormalization Theory; Renormalization Group and Equation.

Genres: Physics

790 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Arsh Dhawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book by Ashok Das is always meant to be good and easy to understand and get intuitive about. However that is the problem, Ashok Das made the book so smooth and intuitive that it fails to be a book of QFT ie it is meant to be hard, to make you think and question and derive. Given QFT and Particle Physics is recent physics and anyone reading it means to go into research, the smoothness acts as a negative as it takes away the questions one has naturally and then exploring the solution yourself. Das is a thick book which asks many questions and answers many more while covering less content than books like Peskin and Schroeder which are equally thick. A QFT book should be dense rather than lucid prompting people to dilute it themselves with their understanding and knowledge to gulp it better. These dense drops are what prepare them for physics.
The book is so beautiful that it must be thrown away.

[Herjuno Nindhito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quantum field theory is one of the most complex things I've ever done. There are enormous amount of derivations with hidden and nifty tricks to get it done. People who devoted their life to work in this area must be had a great computational and marksman skills to take care of all the indices, especially if working with traces of gamma matrices in scattering problems. Haven't done any renormalization and path integrals, but I guess it's enough for now. At least I know how to proceed with QCD.

Pro tip: combine this book with Peskin's and Greiner's. Deadly trio.