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CITATION

McMahon, David. Quantum Field Theory Demystified. US: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008.

Quantum Field Theory Demystified

Authors: David McMahon

Published:  February 2008

eISBN: 9780071643528 0071643524 | ISBN: 9780071543828
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  • Contents
  • Preface
  • Chapter 1 Particle Physics and Special Relativity
  • Special Relativity
  • A Quick Overview of Particle Physics
  • Elementary Particles
  • The Higgs Mechanism
  • Grand Unification
  • Supersymmetry
  • String Theory
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 2 Lagrangian Field Theory
  • Basic Lagrangian Mechanics
  • The Action and the Equations of Motion
  • Canonical Momentum and the Hamiltonian
  • Lagrangian Field Theory
  • Symmetries and Conservation Laws
  • Conserved Currents
  • The Electromagnetic Field
  • Gauge Transformations
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 3 An Introduction to Group Theory
  • Representation of the Group
  • Group Parameters
  • Lie Groups
  • The Rotation Group
  • Representing Rotations
  • SO(N)
  • Unitary Groups
  • Casimir Operators
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 4 Discrete Symmetries and Quantum Numbers
  • Additive and Multiplicative Quantum Numbers
  • Parity
  • Charge Conjugation
  • CP Violation
  • The CPT Theorem
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 5 The Dirac Equation
  • The Classical Dirac Field
  • Adding Quantum Theory
  • The Form of the Dirac Matrices
  • Some Tedious Properties of the Dirac Matrices
  • Adjoint Spinors and Transformation Properties
  • Slash Notation
  • Solutions of the Dirac Equation
  • Free Space Solutions
  • Boosts, Rotations, and Helicity
  • Weyl Spinors
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 6 Scalar Fields
  • Arriving at the Klein-Gordon Equation
  • Reinterpreting the Field
  • Field Quantization of Scalar Fields
  • States in Quantum Field Theory
  • Positive and Negative Frequency Decomposition
  • Number Operators
  • Normalization of the States
  • Bose-Einstein Statistics
  • Normal and Time-Ordered Products
  • The Complex Scalar Field
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 7 The Feynman Rules
  • The Interaction Picture
  • Perturbation Theory
  • Basics of the Feynman Rules
  • Calculating Amplitudes
  • Steps to Construct an Amplitude
  • Rates of Decay and Lifetimes
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 8 Quantum Electrodynamics
  • Reviewing Classical Electrodynamics Again
  • The Quantized Electromagnetic Field
  • Gauge Invariance and QED
  • Feynman Rules for QED
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 9 Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and the Higgs Mechanism
  • Symmetry Breaking in Field Theory
  • Mass Terms in the Lagrangian
  • Aside on Units
  • Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Mass
  • Lagrangians with Multiple Particles
  • The Higgs Mechanism
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 10 Electroweak Theory
  • Right- and Left-Handed Spinors
  • A Massless Dirac Lagrangian
  • Leptonic Fields of the Electroweak Interactions
  • Charges of the Electroweak Interaction
  • Unitary Transformations and the Gauge Fields of the Theory
  • Weak Mixing or Weinberg Angle
  • Symmetry Breaking
  • Giving Mass to the Lepton Fields
  • Gauge Masses
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 11 Path Integrals
  • Gaussian Integrals
  • Basic Path Integrals
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Chapter 12 Supersymmetry
  • Basic Overview of Supersymmetry
  • Supercharge
  • Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics
  • The Simplified Wess-Zumino Model
  • A Simple SUSY Lagrangian
  • Summary
  • Quiz
  • Final Exam
  • Solutions to Quizzes and Final Exam
  • References
  • Index