FIZ 625 - Quantum Field Theory I

Course Objectives

Quantum Field Theory is the language in which all of modern physics is formulated. It repre- sents the marriage of quantum mechanics with special relativity and provides the mathematical framework in which to describe the interactions of elementary particles.
This first Quantum Field Theory course concerns the canonical quantization and introduces the basic types of fields which play an important role in high energy physics: scalar, spinor (Dirac), and vector (gauge) fields. The relativistic invariance and symmetry properties of these fields will be discussed using Lagrangian language and Noethers theorem. The quantisation of the basic non-interacting free fields will be developed using the Hamiltonian and canonical methods in terms of operators which create and annihilate particles and anti-particles. The associated Fock space of quantum physical states will be explained together with ideas about how particles propagate in spacetime and their statistics. Quantum Electrodynamics, the theory of interacting photons, electrons and positrons, will be introduced and elementary scattering processes will be computed.
If time permits, the idea of loops in Feynman diagrams are explored and the queston of the consequent infinities will be looked at. Ways of dealing with the infinities will be expolored in the Quantum Field Theory II course which follows on directly from this one.

Course Description

QFT