{"product_id":"quantum-field-theory-in-a-nutshell-9780691140346","title":"Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCovers the advances in the field while providing a conceptual foundation for students to build on quantum field theory available. This title includes exercises, explanations, and examples, as well as detailed appendices, solutions to selected exercises, and suggestions for further reading.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Every theoretical physicist and every university library should own this book.\"--Choice \"This is quantum field theory taught at the knee of ... one who loves the grandeur of his subject, has a keen eye for a slick argument, and is eager to share his repertoire of anecdotes about Feynman, Fermi, and all of his heroes... Zee misses no opportunity to point out that an argument he gives opens the door to some deeper subject that he encourages the reader to explore... [Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell] helps them love the subject and race to its frontier.\"--Michael E. Peskin, Classical and Quantum Gravity \"[T]his is an excellent and unique introduction to quantum field theory. It takes a lot of work, and capable but less confident students would need a great deal of guidance, but it is a beautiful text written with infectious enthusiasm, and I thoroughly recommend it.\"--S. Virmani, Contemporary Physics \"[This] is an excellent invitation to the wide area of modern quantum field theory, and even provides the mature field theoretician with interesting insights and connections. To the curious student, it is a near-perfect companion to spice up the world of quantum field theory, especially particle physics, beyond the standard presentations... It is definitely highly recommendable to anyone who wants to have a book with a non-standard view on quantum field theory, or who just wants to have an entertaining and insightful reprise of the topic.\"--Axel Maas, Mathematical Reviews Clippings\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface xi Convention, Notation, and Units xv      PART I: MOTIVATION AND FOUNDATION  I.1 Who Needs It? 3  I.2 Path Integral Formulation of Quantum Physics 7  I.3 From Mattress to Field 16  I.4 From Field to Particle to Force 24  I.5 Coulomb and Newton: Repulsion and Attraction 30  I.6 Inverse Square Law and the Floating 3-Brane 38  I.7 Feynman Diagrams 41  I.8 Quantizing Canonically and Disturbing the Vacuum.61  I.9 Symmetry 70  I.10 Field Theory in Curved Spacetime 76  I.11 Field Theory Redux 84      PART II: DIRAC AND THE SPINOR  II.1 The Dirac Equation 89  II.2 Quantizing the Dirac Field 103  II.3 Lorentz Group and Weyl Spinors 111  II.4 Spin-Statistics Connection 117  II.5 Vacuum Energy, Grassmann Integrals, and Feynman Diagrams for Fermions 121  II.6 Electron Scattering and Gauge Invariance130  II.7 Diagrammatic Proof of Gauge Invariance135      PART III: RENORMALIZATION AND GAUGE INVARIANCE  III.1 Cutting Off Our Ignorance 145  III.2 Renormalizable versus Nonrenormalizable154  III.3 Counterterms and Physical Perturbation Theory 158  III.4 Gauge Invariance: A Photon Can Find No Rest 167  III.5 Field Theory without Relativity 172  III.6 The Magnetic Moment of the Electron 177  III.7 Polarizing the Vacuum and Renormalizing the Charge.183      PART IV: SYMMETRY AND SYMMETRY BREAKING  IV.1 Symmetry Breaking 193  IV.2 The Pion as a Nambu-Goldstone Boson 202  IV.3 Effective Potential 208  IV.4 Magnetic Monopole 217  IV.5 Nonabelian Gauge Theory 226  IV.6 The Anderson-Higgs Mechanism 236  IV.7 Chiral Anomaly 243      PART V: FIELD THEORY AND COLLECTIVE PHENOMENA  V.1 Superfluids 257  V.2 Euclid, Boltzmann, Hawking, and Field Theory at Finite Temperature 261  V.3 Landau-Ginzburg Theory of Critical Phenomena 267  V.4 Superconductivity 270  V.5 Peierls Instability 273  V.6 Solitons 277  V.7 Vortices, Monopoles, and Instantons 282      PART VI: FIELD THEORY AND CONDENSED MATTER  VI.1 Fractional Statistics, Chern-Simons Term, and Topological Field Theory 293  VI.2 Quantum Hall Fluids 300  VI.3 Duality 309  VI.4 The ? Models as Effective Field Theories 318  VI.5 Ferromagnets and Antiferromagnets 322  VI.6 Surface Growth and Field Theory 326  VI.7 Disorder: Replicas and Grassmannian Symmetry 330  VI.8 Renormalization Group Flow as a Natural Concept in High Energy and Condensed Matter Physics 337      PART VII: GRAND UNIFICATION  VII.1 Quantizing Yang-Mills Theory and Lattice Gauge Theory. 353  VII.2 Electroweak Unification 361  VII.3 Quantum Chromodynamics 368  VII.4 Large N Expansion 377  VII.5 Grand Unification 391  VII.6 Protons Are Not Forever 397  VII.7 SO(10) Unification 405      PART VIII: GRAVITY AND BEYOND  VIII.1 Gravity as a Field Theory and the Kaluza-Klein Picture.419  VIII.2 The Cosmological Constant Problem and the Cosmic Coincidence Problem 434  VIII.3 Effective Field Theory Approach to Understanding Nature 437  VIII.4 Supersymmetry: A Very Brief Introduction443  VIII.5 A Glimpse of String Theory as a 2-Dimensional Field Theory 452  Closing Words 455      APPENDIXES:  A: Gaussian Integration and the Central Identity of Quantum Field Theory 459  B: A Brief Review of Group Theory 461  C: Feynman Rules 471  D: Various Identities and Feynman Integrals475  E Dotted and Undotted Indices and the Majorana Spinor.479  Solutions to Selected Exercises 483      Further Reading 501  Index 505","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48865521762647,"sku":"9780691140346","price":74.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780691140346.jpg?v=1722274369","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/quantum-field-theory-in-a-nutshell-9780691140346","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}