Physics 722: Quantum Field Theory
Spring 2015

Instructor - Josh Erlich
Small Hall, Room 332B
Office Phone: 757-221-3763
Email: erlich@physics.wm.edu

Topics to be covered, as space-time permits:

Radiative Corrections in QED

• Electron self energy
• Electron vertex function and g-2
• Bremsstrahlung and infrared divergences
• Lamb shift




Renormalization

• Effective field theory
• The renormalization group
• Application to critical phenomena




Symmetries

• Lie groups and Lie algebras
• Isospin, chiral symmetry and hadron phenomenology
• Spontaneous symmetry breaking, Goldstone's theorem
• Anomalous global symmetries




Gauge Theories


• Functional integral quantization
• Ward-Takahashi Indentities
• Non-Abelian gauge theory (Yang-Mills theory)
• Gauge fixing and Fadeev-Popov ghosts
• Quantum Chromodynamics: Asymptotic freedom and confinement
• Electroweak symmetry breaking: the Higgs mechanism
• Standard Model of Particle Physics

Course requirements and grade:

• Problem sets (70%)
• Take home final exam (30%)

Text:  This course will be loosely based on M. Peskin and D. Schroeder, An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory. I will also provide lecture notes, which have been influenced by a number of sources, in particular Sidney Coleman's lectures. You can find Coleman's lectures online here, and lecture notes from the first semester here. Steven Weinberg's three-book series The Quantum Theory of Fields contains insights not found anywhere else as far as I know, and is a useful reference.

Notes: 
Lecture Notes 1
Lecture Notes 2
Lecture Notes 3
Lecture Notes 4-5
Lecture Notes 6
Lecture Notes 7
Lecture Notes 8-9
Lecture Notes 10
Lecture Notes 11
Lecture Notes 12
Lecture Notes 13
Lecture Notes 14
Lecture Notes 14.5
Lecture Notes 15
Lecture Notes 16
Lecture Notes 17
Lecture Notes 18
Lecture Notes 19-20
Lecture Notes 21
Lecture Notes 22
Lecture Notes 23
Lecture Notes 24
Lecture Notes 25
Lecture Notes 26

Problem Sets

Problem sets will be available here and will generally be due Thursdays.