Course Identification

Quantum field theory 1
20141042

Lecturers and Teaching Assistants

Prof. Ofer Aharony
Dr. Efrat Gerchkovitz, Dr. Vladimir Narovlansky, Dr. Itamar Shamir

Course Schedule and Location

2014
Second Semester
Sunday, 11:15 - 13:00, Weissman, Auditorium
Thursday, 09:15 - 11:00, Weissman, Auditorium

Tutorials
Tuesday, 16:15 - 18:00, Weissman, Seminar Rm A
09/03/2014

Field of Study, Course Type and Credit Points

Physical Sciences: Regular; 4.00 points

Comments

N/A

Prerequisites

QM1, QM2

Restrictions

No

Language of Instruction

English

Registration by

28/03/2014

Attendance and participation

Expected and Recommended

Grade Type

Numerical (out of 100)

Grade Breakdown (in %)

33%
67%

Evaluation Type

Examination

Scheduled date 1

24/07/2014
Weissman, Seminar Rm A
0930-1430
N/A

Scheduled date 2

N/A
N/A
-
N/A

Estimated Weekly Independent Workload (in hours)

6

Syllabus

1) Introduction. Conventions.

2) Perturbation theory and Feynman diagrams from Path Integrals
(scalars and fermions). Computation of tree-level diagrams. The S-matrix.

3) Computation of one-loop diagrams, regularization and renormalization. Dimensional regularization. Renormalizable field theories. Beta functions. The LSZ reduction formula.

4) QED : quantization of gauge fields, gauge fixing and the Faddeev-Popov procedure, Feynman diagrams, tree-level processes, Ward identities. Scattering amplitudes at one-loop, renormalization, IR divergences. 1PI effective action, BRST symmetry.

5) Non-Abelian gauge theories : Feynman rules, gauge-fixing, the one-loop beta function. QCD, asymptotic freedom, confinement.

6) (Time permitting) Symmetries, Goldstone's theorem, renormalization and symmetry, effective actions of Nambu-Goldstone bosons and the Higgs
mechanism.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:

[1] Perform perturbative computations, both at tree-level and at higher orders (loops), in any quantum
field theory, including scalars, fermions, and Abelian or non-Abelian gauge fields. This includes
regularizing and renormalizing the theory if necessary, and computing the beta functions indicating
how coupling constants vary with the scale. Students should be able to perform both computations of
correlation functions, and of the S-matrix.

[2] Understand continuous symmetries in quantum field theory, the distinction between global symmetries
and gauge symmetries, how to tell whether a symmetry is broken or not, and what are the implications
of broken symmetries.

[3] Be ready to take more advanced courses, including QFT2 and advanced courses
in supersymmetry, string theory and other related topics.

Reading List

The main book that will be used is M. Peskin and J. Schroeder, ?An introduction to quantum field theory?,
but there are many other good books on this topic, and it is recommended to look at several different books.

Website

N/A