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Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur


Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur

Paperback by Lancaster, Tom (Lecturer in Physics, Lecturer in Physics, Department of Physics, University of Durham); Blundell, Stephen J. (Professor of Physics, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford)

Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur

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£32.72

ISBN:
9780199699339
Publication Date:
17 Apr 2014
Language:
English
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Pages:
512 pages
Format:
Paperback
For delivery:
Estimated despatch 6 May 2024
Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur

Description

Quantum field theory is arguably the most far-reaching and beautiful physical theory ever constructed, with aspects more stringently tested and verified to greater precision than any other theory in physics. Unfortunately, the subject has gained a notorious reputation for difficulty, with forbidding looking mathematics and a peculiar diagrammatic language described in an array of unforgiving, weighty textbooks aimed firmly at aspiring professionals. However, quantum field theory is too important, too beautiful, and too engaging to be restricted to the professionals. This book on quantum field theory is designed to be different. It is written by experimental physicists and aims to provide the interested amateur with a bridge from undergraduate physics to quantum field theory. The imagined reader is a gifted amateur, possessing a curious and adaptable mind, looking to be told an entertaining and intellectually stimulating story, but who will not feel patronised if a few mathematical niceties are spelled out in detail. Using numerous worked examples, diagrams, and careful physically motivated explanations, this book will smooth the path towards understanding the radically different and revolutionary view of the physical world that quantum field theory provides, and which all physicists should have the opportunity to experience.

Contents

I: THE UNIVERSE AS A SET OF HARMONIC OSCILLATORS; II: WRITING DOWN LAGRANGIANS; III: THE NEED FOR QUANTUM FIELDS; IV: PROPAGATORS AND PERTURBATIONS; V: INTERLUDE: WISDOM FROM STATISTICAL PHYSICS; VI: PATH INTEGRALS; VII: TOPOLOGICAL IDEAS; VIII: RENORMALIZATION: TAMING THE INFINITE; IX: PUTTING A SPIN ON QFT; X: SOME APPLICATIONS FROM THE WORLD OF CONDENSED MATTER; XI: SOME APPLICATIONS FROM THE WORLD OF PARTICLE PHYSICS

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