Description
Book SynopsisIn this volume, topics are drawn from field theory, especially gauge field theory, as applied to particle, condensed matter and gravitational physics, and concern a variety of interesting subjects. These include geometricalDtopological effects in quantum theory, fractional charge, time travel, relativistic quantized fields in and out of thermal equilibrium and quantum modifications of symmetry in physical systems.Many readers will find this a useful volume, especially theoretical physicists and mathematicians. The material will be of interest to both the expert who will find well-presented novel and stimulating viewpoints of various subjects and the novice who will find complete, detailed and precise descriptions of important topics of current interest, in theoretical and mathematical physics.
Table of ContentsPart 1 Anomalies and fractional charge: non-canonical behaviour in canonical theories; quantum mechanical symmetry breaking; delta function potentials in two- and three-dimensional quantum mechanics; update on anomalous theories; effects of Dirac's negative energy sea on quantum numbers; Fermion fractionization in physics; the chiral anomaly. Part 2 Gauge theories and gravity: Yang-Mills vacuum as a bloch wave; bifurcation and stability in Yang-Mills theory with sources; Gauge theories in three dimensions (= at high temperature); planar gravity; time travel?; Gauge theories for gravity on a line. Part 3 Symmetry behavior: introducing scale symmetry; hidden symmetry of the point magnetic monopole; invariance, symmetry and periodicity in Gauge theories; symmetry restoration at finite temperature; mean field theory for non-equilibrium quantum fields. Part 4 Approaches to quantum theory following Dirac: canonical light-cone commutators and their applications; invariant quantization, scale symmetry and Euclidean field theory; (constrained) quantization without tears; analysis on infinite-dimensional manifolds - Schrodinger representation for quantized fields. Part 5 Solitons, instantons and semi-classical quantum field theory: non-perturbative and topological methods in quantum field theory; self-dual Chern-Simons solitions.
