Physics 851 - Advanced Quantum Field Theory

Spring 2012

Instructor: Raman Sundrum - raman@umd.edu
TA: Prateek Agrawal - apr@umd.edu

Announcements

Feb 19: Homework 1 uploaded, due March 1

Homeworks

Homework 1 Solutions (+Mathematica notebook)
Homework 2 Solutions
Homework 3
Homework 4

Reading material

Why do we need local gauge invariance? - Gerard 't Hooft
Textbook: Quantum Field Theory - Peskin and Schroeder

Timing

Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Room #0201 Math building
Fridays, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Room #1201

Topics

(pre-requisite: Phys624)
renormalization and loop-level feynman diagrams and processes, S-matrix construction and unitarity,
non-abelian gauge theory, path integral techniques.

The topics covered in class are in roughly the following order of Peskin and Schroeder chapters:

Chapter 7 - Radiative Corrections: Some Formal Developments (Optical Theorem, LSZ Formulation...)
Chapter 6 - Radiative Corrections: Introduction (g-2...)
Chapter 9 - Functional Methods (Path Integrals)
Chapter 10 - Systematics of Renormalization
Chapter 15 - Non-Abelian Gauge Invariance
Chapter 16 - Quantization of Non-Abelian Gauge Theories

Format

There will be a final exam (30% of grade) and a few assignments (70% of grade).