Physics 215b, Quantum Field Theory 2007

Professor: Ken Intriligator, Mayer Hall 5234


Text: An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory , by Peskin and Schroeder.

Course Times : MW 3:30-4:50pm. MH5301.

Homework: Some practice problems will be suggested, but not graded. Other HW problems will be turned in and graded; these will entirely determine course grade.

lecture# topic (and link to notes) Homework
1/5 Introduction to path integrals          
1/7 Path integrals, continued          
1/10 Generating function Z[J]   9.2a,b (Due 1/22)       
1/22 Z[J], continued          
1/24 Euclidean space. W[J].           Homework 2(due 1/29)
1/29 1PI diagrams          
1/31 W[J], and Gamma[Phi].          
2/5 More on the effective action          
2/7 Doing loop integrals           HW 3 (Due 2/14)
2/12 Loops, continued          
2/14 counterterms and renormalization          
2/21 renormalization schemes and RG          
2/26 Full propagator, spectral function, LSZ          
2/28 Optical theorem. RG.          
3/2 RG eqn. Beta, gamma.          
3/5 RG flows, cont. Compute gamma. Grassmann integrals          
3/7 Path integral for fermions and gauge fields. Gauge invariance          
3/12 QED and loop diagrams   HW 4 (Due March 19)        
3/14 QED and renormalization          
3/16 beta functions of QED and QCD