An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)

Customer Reviews:

Perfect........2007-08-10

I received the book as it should be: knew. And it cames before the estimated time.

Wow, does this suck . . . get a different book!.......2007-06-13

Ok--I just need to help lower the overall rating for this book. I think the people who love it are professors and students who already are familiar with QFT--because it glosses over everything, does pertinent examples, etc. But that's just it, it GLOSSES over everything. Note that nearly all the higher reviews say things like: "oh, you wouldn't want to start with this book." or "Everyone knows that you're going to need more books than this one to understand it . . ." I couldn't even figure out how to create a Feynmann diagram from this book, let alone what one MEANT. FYI, my favorite QFT book so far is Weinberg's Quantum Theory of Fields.

This book is a very very very bad book which you never buy........2007-01-20

Absolutely no logic.
Perfectly nonclear.
No subject.
Mathematically poor.(very poor.)
Nonneccessary words.
No depth.
Not for self-study.
Just arrangement.
No physical insight.
No process.
No thinking.

This is indeed not a book.
This is a stuff for a vanity.
I wonder whether Peskin and Schroeder are genuine physicists.

Don't make the same fault I did!.......2006-12-16

Hi there!

The important information first: I'm a graduate student, mainly interested in theoretical physics. At the moment, I'm trying to get a deeper understanding of QFT.

Peskin's QFT book is NOT the one you should buy if you want to UNDERSTAND renormalization.

I learned the basics of QFT (\phi^4 and QED up to a first contact with renormalization - "trivial" subtraction of infinities) in a lecture and I finally felt like: "What does renormalization mean? What is it good for? Is there a deeper truth in it?" Well, the answer to the last question is definitely yes. It's about the Beta function. This function tells you how the coupling constants of a QFT behave at different momenta. E.g., we can learn from it why perturbation theory works for QED at low energies and for QCD at high energies (I think, this is amazing).

What I just said I learned from Huang's book. Peskin "deals" with it in chapters 10 to 12. In the middle of chapter 12 I finally said to myself: "Hey, don't feel stupid. This book is just completely incomprehensible here."

In my opinion, if you want to see behind renormalization (and therefore behind any QFT(!!)), don't buy Peskin's book. Any other book is better regarding this issue.

It is sad that we don't have a better book out there..........2006-05-28

The main problem of this book: what exactly is it supposed to be?

If it is an introduction, then the opening chapters are written at a level too sophisticated that an average first-time student can't handle.

If it aims to be a "bible" of the subject, then the later chapters are far too technical, loaded with only Feynman diagram calculations for standard model. Not being a phenomenologist, I personally have very little interest in all the technical detail, and apparently several other reviewers share my view here.

Now let me gives some examples to support my claim.

First, C, P and T symmetries are introduced very early on (right after Dirac spinor), and in a very formal way. Yes, they logically belong there, but in an "introduction" of the subject you don't throw out an isolated topic like this which you don't make use of in the following few hundred pages.

The part on cannonical quantization is written at a very fast pace. A complex scalar field is probably the first model you can construct with charged particles. And guess what kind of treatment it receives in this book? Not a single word in the main text. The problem 2 of that chapter essentially asks you to work out the content of this model with few hints given. If you have troble working it out, which is not uncommon for a first-timer, then you won't see the logic behind the decomposition of a complex Dirac field either. This is done in the following chapter, with no explaination.

Like the charged scalar field example, some important pieces of knowledge are hidden only in the exercises. So if you treat these high-power opening chapters as your bible-type reference, you will often end up in the frustrating situation that the book tells you to work out by yourself what you are seeking in the first place.

Now get to the later parts of the book. As I mentioned above, the second half of the book is almost conceptually too simple, overloaded with technical details.

This downfall begins around the renormalization group. On the back of this book, this Prof. Micheal Dine is qouted: "it is the only field theory text with a thoroughly modern, Wilsonian treatment of renormalization". The connection between the Wilsonian idea and dimensional regularization/renormalization scale is shaky at best. You read the text, and are left puzzled at the magic: how does a cut-off scale become some (much lower) arbitrary momentum scale? No explaination. The Wilsonian theory is completely isolated and have little connection with the rest of the renormalization section.

Furthermore, the book does not do a very good job on Lie algebra and non-abilien Lie groups. I mean, come on, if this is an "introduction" type of book, make it more readable. If this is a "bible" type of book, make it more comprehensive.

Having voiced all my bad opinions, I have to admit that the book has its merit. Bottom line is, this is a book written by phenomenologists for phenomenologists. If you view it from such an angle, it is not too badly written after all, and does cover most of the important topics a phnomenologist would want to know. But you may want to start from a more accessible text such as Ryder.

If you are a theorist, but not a phenomenologist, then, well, let's say the ability of getting through the first part perfectly is the minimum requirement for your research.

If you are an experimentalist, don't bother.

Quantum Field Theory of Point Particles and Strings (Frontiers in Physics)

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Much inferior to Ryder for intro QFT
an intriguing book, what should I say?
Nice to read, but not complete.
One of the best for understanding QFT
Excellent reference book for students

Quantum Field Theory of Point Particles and Strings (Frontiers in Physics)
Brian Hatfield
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0201360799

Book Description

The purpose of this book is to introduce string theory without assuming any background in quantum field theory. Part I of this book follows the development of quantum field theory for point particles, while Part II introduces strings. All of the tools and concepts that are needed to quantize strings are developed first for point particles. Thus, Part I presents the main framework of quantum field theory and provides for a coherent development of the generalization and application of quantum field theory for point particles to strings.

Customer Reviews:

Much inferior to Ryder for intro QFT.......2002-06-09

I endorse most of what the reviewer below says except that Jasonc65 from Wilmington has forgotten that the derivative with respect to complex z=x+iy is d/dz=1/2(d/dx - i.d/dy) so that he should have got pi=half[i.phi(star)] by both methods - which is the right answer! Hatfield has simply got it wrong. Similarly,pi(star)=minus half(i.phi). For the correct treatment see Franz Gross "Relativistic Q.M. and Field Theory" chapter 7. And it's not the only error; simply "plugging (2.52) into an equation like (2.47)" clearly does not give (2.50) and (2.51) but gives an imaginary probability density and no i-factor in the spatial components.
Hatfield's treatment is not the step by step approach claimed but rather piecemeal and with a cavalier attitude to index house-keeping minus signs and factors of i and 1/2 etc. He is further let down by the typesetting of Perseus books that makes hardly any use of boldface characters, uses a point size for indices and suffixes not much smaller than the normal font and an almost typewriter-like character spacing in equations and formulae that make them sprawl across the page in a way less easy to scan than most other publisher's neatly grouped expressions.
For a step by step introduction that is clear, reasonably rigorous and more readable than Hatfield, I would strongly recommend Lewis Ryder's QFT book notwithstanding that it is mainly oriented towards the path integral formulation.

an intriguing book, what should I say?.......2002-04-03

This book promises to be a nice read for someone with minimal background. And many people with backgrounds in physics say it's an easy read. Maybe it is for them, but not for me. Now, I admit, I am a wannabe physicist. Most of my background is in pure mathematics and computer programming. However, I have recently taken up an interest in physics, and of all the sciences, I find that books in advanced physics are the most difficult to understand, in general. It has taken me many painful hours just to understand the Langrangian and the Hamiltonian, and just last week I finally mastered Noether's theorem. And by page 20 of this book, I'm exposed to the Lagrangian density, kind of a continuous extension of the notion of the Lagrangian. Well, generalizing from finitely many particles to a continuous field is not really that difficult. And I guess that is a very important insight in and of itself. But as I read the next 5 pages, I am absolutely dumbfounded by the stretch of rigor. I can't guess what rule they'll break next, as they assume that every calculation rule will carry over in their transition from one domain to another. In fact, as I write this review, I am still stuck pondering page 25, wondering how they justify every single step.

This is not the first time I've tried to read this book. I've had to frequently consult other books on mathematical physics before I could proceed any further. Now, I admit, that while my background in mathematics is thorough, I've never had a formal education in physics, and I'm trying as best as I can to read all the books on mathematical physics, quantum mechanics, QFT, QED, GR, etc. And I think I have the handle on the Hamiltonian, and how it is used in both classical and quantum mechanics.

On pages 21-22, I have to pour over calucations using integration by parts, and using some unstated boundary conditions, a minor difficulty with which I can cope. But then I find out the the author wants the Lagrangian density to depend on a complex function, and it's conjugate. So while I'm stuck in the middle of page 23, I have to redo all the calculations in my head. Now, that sure isn't step by step detail, as the preface claims. The author doesn't even tell me how I'm supposed to differentiate with respect to the complex functions. Am I supposed to treat the field and its conjugate as complex variables, or am I supposed to pretend that the Lagrangian density really depends on the real and imaginary parts of the field and thus consider two real fields instead of one complex field? I've tried both methods, and neither one of them satisfies my sense of rigor.

In equation (2.52), the author gives the Lagrangian, promising the reader it can easily be calculated by working backwards through the previous equations. I don't find that easy to do in my head at all. I've managed to work forwards and verify that the Lagrangian satisfies the invariance and reproduces Shroedinger's equation. But that was only after I poured over the next paragraph and realized that the transformation factor was supposed to be an imaginary number. Until then, it didn't make sense at all.

Now, I get to (2.53), where Hatfield gives the conjugate momentum as pi = i conjugate phi, without showing any intermediate steps. I tried differentiating with respect to the real and imaginary parts, and I got pi = -i phi. When I tried it again with complex differentiation, which I feel is less plausible, I got pi = i/2 conjugate phi. As always, either I'm not understanding what how the author wants me to make the transition, or else he's doing a sloppy job of it. Of course, like most other physics books, there are arithmetic errors that I have to sort through, and that only makes it worse. I find out only after pondering for days on a single line that the author meant a plus sign where he used a minus.

Well, I tried to forget about this confusion and move on. The author gives the Hamiltonian in (2.55), and then begins to discuss how to second quantize the result. Now, I'm not even sure how the differential operator carries over. In order to justify the claim that (2.55) reproduces the (2.37), it seems that I have to now assume that both d/dx and V(x) commute with phi(x,t). In the first quantized system, this is pure nonsense.

Now, I'm on page 25, where the author is discussing expansion in terms of eigenfunctions. It is smooth sailing until I get to (2.59), where in order to justify the last step, Hatfield makes the absurd claim (2.60), and I'm still trying to figure it out. I can only justify that claim if I confuse integer variables with continuous variables and treat the equation as a matrix equation. After all, you're dealing with a unitary matrix. But just try it with Hermite functions (energy eigenfunctions for the harmonic oscillator problem) and you'll run into problems with infinities. Of course, calculations with the Dirac delta function have never been fully rigorous, so maybe I'm kidding myself.

As you can see, I've only begun the book, so I can't really give a complete review of the whole thing, but it sure seems to be promising to be one headache after another.

Nice to read, but not complete........2001-03-20

This book is nice to read, I agree with most of the previous reviews about this. Some things are interesting, e.g. the chapter on Schrodinger picture, which is almost completely ignored in most textbooks. The style is very readable and the text gives some useful insights. However, it is not suitable as a reference on QFT or on strings because a number of subjects are left out: renormalisation of gauge theories (only QED is handled), symmetry breaking, the standard model, dimensional regularisation, supersymmetry, superstrings. In less pages, Ryder covers all these subjects, except strings, but in the end gives less insight on the inner working of the theory.

One of the best for understanding QFT.......2001-03-14

This book is readable (you don't have to sit down with paper and pencil and work out a page of calculations to get from one line to the next, for most of the text)and it is clear (concepts are defined and explained). It is not really suitable as a first exposure to QFT for the reader would be better off with some familiarity with Feynman diagrams and relativistic quantum mechanics beforehand. With this background Hatfield's book is very valuable as a source for understanding the meaning behind QFT. Many other field theory texts seem to be concerned with little beyond the motions of handling the mechanical formalism and obtaining quantitative results to problems. This book instead gives the reader insight into field theory, does a good job at giving the big picture and stressing the transition from ordinary QM to the field aspect. Besides this, Hatfield's informal prose makes the book enjoyable to read. It has a fair share of typos throughout but most are quite easy to find. Compared to some of the popular field theory texts out there (P&S, Ryder) this one stands head and shoulders above.

Excellent reference book for students.......2001-03-07

This is not a typical field theory book. From the very beginning the aim is to teach the reader all the concepts and methods which will be useful to learn string theory which form the last third of the book. Excellent examples of this can be found in the chapters on path integral and also in the chapter on Fadeev-Popov method. Almost all calculations are shown in step by step detail and it is very useful for the students who are learning field theory for the first time. The organization of the book is a little different from the usual mold of field theory books, but one can get use to it. One just has to realize that while most of the field theory books on the market (except for Weinberg's 3 volume text and one or two other) aim at teaching how to derive Feynman rules and how to calculate a few processes , this book by Hatfield is trying to take the "field theory book" audiance (who are usually phenomenology oriented) to a different playground "introduction to strings". This is an excellent book and a definite break from the old "B&D book 1 and 2" tradition and I would recommend it to both students and teachers (most of whom are still stuck in the old mode) alike. K. M. Maung Department of Physics Hampton University Hampton, Virginia 23668

Statistical Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)

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Review OF Parisi's Statistical Field Theory

Statistical Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)
Giorgio Parisi
Manufacturer: Perseus Books (Sd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0201059851

Customer Reviews:

Review OF Parisi's Statistical Field Theory.......2000-03-30

This book presents a fairly complete description of field theoretic methods to varied fields of physics. The presentation is quite clear and complete. I recommend these books to any one interested in field theory in statistical mechanics or in quantum field theory.

Field Theory: A Modern Primer (Frontiers in Physics, Vol 74)

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A grad student's viewpoint
A good book to learn Feynman diagrams

Field Theory: A Modern Primer (Frontiers in Physics, Vol 74)
Pierre Ramond
Manufacturer: Perseus Books (Sd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0201546116

Book Description

Field Theory presents the recent advances of perturbative relativistic field theory in a pedagogical and straightforward way. It will be of interest to graduate students who intend to specialize in high-energy physics.

Customer Reviews:

A grad student's viewpoint.......2006-03-10

This book, unlike "standard" texts like Peskin & Schroeder, deals more with the formal aspects of field theory, and may not be so useful for the person interested in phenomenology. Wilsonian RG is missing too, but it's a great place for an introduction to gauge theory. The misprints can be annoying, but at the same time keep you on your toes. The presentation is somewhat terse, and to work through a page of this book can be equivalent to working through several pages of another book, say Peskin & Schroeder.

A good book to learn Feynman diagrams.......2000-05-12

A reader can learn how to compute the Green's functions and the scattering amplitudes using Feynman diagrams. The scalar Klein-Gordon field is used as a pedagogical example at the beginning. The philosophy of the path integral is used all over the book. However, the book does not emphasize the philosophy of the Wilson renormalization group and in this sense the primer is not modern. Nevertheless, Pierre Ramond is a pretty famous scientist and you can learn many things from this book.

Quantum Many-Particle Systems (Frontiers in Physics)

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Clear, precise, and modern
An important book for beginner cond-mat physicists and more.

Quantum Many-Particle Systems (Frontiers in Physics)
J. W. Negele , and Henri Orland
Manufacturer: Perseus Books (Sd)
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0201125935

Book Description

This volume explains the fundamental concepts and theoretical techniques used to understand the properties of quantum systems used to understand the properties of quantum systems having large numbers of degrees of freedom. A number of complimentary approaches are developed, including perturbation theory; nonpurturbative approximations based on functional integrals; general arguments based on order parameters; symmetry, and Fermi liquid theory; and stochastic methods. Each approach provides its own insights and quantitative capabilities, and in conjunction provide a powerful framework for understanding a wide variety of physical systems. Written at a level for graduate students with no prior background in manybody theory, this classic text is intended for physicists in solid state physics, field theory, atomic physics, condensed matter physics, quantum chemistry, and nuclear physics.

Customer Reviews:

Clear, precise, and modern.......2002-09-11

A great physics book for field theory applied to condensed
matter and sometimes nuclear physics problems. The authors
are EXTREMELY careful mathematically and really don't skip
any steps or shove stuff under the rug; in fact, the first
chapter is just all math about how to do integrals and path
integrals and field integrals and deal with Grassman numbers.
A bit unusual for a physics book, but that's their style.

The rest of the book deals with the usual and other material:

zero-temperature Green's functions and perturbation theory
(for energy, Green's function, etc.) The treatment is detailed
and relatively exhaustive. Then there is the same for finite-
temperature. The earlier sections on linear response are
concise and one of the best treatments of the subject I have
seen leading directly to the fluctuation dissipation expression
(after this book I realized this vaunted "fluctuation-dissipation" that no one can explain is just
a straightforward thing about commutators and pert. theory).

The book also has other good stuff: a chapter on mean field theory, Landau-Ginzburg theory, order parameters, and a nice
discussion about spontaneous symmetry breaking that helps
clarify a bunch of stuff. Then there is a whole chapter on
further aspects of one-particle Green's functions (Dyson
equation, solving for poles, quasiparticles, satellites, etc.)
that is pretty good and gets the physical point across. There
is also a chapter on statistical (monte carlo, numerical, etc.)
methods for doing quantum many body problems. While some of
the methods are not the most up to date or modern, the basics
are all there (Monte Carlo, Hubbard-Strataonvich (spelling?),
inverting matrices via Monte Carlo, some stuff about lattice
systems, Langevin equation simulation for Monte Carlo, updating
problems, etc.) There is also a chapter on more advanced
functional integration stuff. Also there is a nice description
of the loop expansion and whatnot.

The book is very well written, has no errors as far as I can
tell, and is exhaustive on what it treats. The problems at
the end of the first few chapters deal with physics problems
and help build intuition whereas the texts in these chapters
are more formal. The book could use some more physical insights
sprinkled throughout, but that is not too much of a drawback.

The book is based on functional integration (Feynman integral)
methods for field theory: this is the modern way folks do it
and it is a powerful way of doing field theory both to
derive results, connect results, do expansions and what not,
and also for certain kinds of monte carl computations. So
having read this, the reader is up to date on a pretty modern
view of field theory in condensed matter (and somewhat on
nuclear physics).

Highly recommended unless you can't stand precise and long
mathematical treatments. My only misgiving is that sometimes
I wish the authors provided more physical insights for certain
concepts and gave some examples rather than "just the math";
but they do this in other parts of the book, so perhaps
my complaint, which is not that serious, is more about the
uneven way this is done. Nevertheless, this is 5/5 and a book
you will read many times and learn from many times.

An important book for beginner cond-mat physicists and more........2000-04-10

A very good introduction to the many particle systems, includes all from the basics of coherent states to very complex parts of theory.

Combinatorics & Renormalizatio PB (Frontiers in Physics)

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Combinatorics & Renormalizatio PB (Frontiers in Physics)
Eduardo R. Caianiello
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

This volume is based upon work done by the author and his collaborators over a period of approximately twenty years and is dedicated to some selected topics of quantum field theory, which have proved of increasing importance with the passing of time. There are three parts: Combinatoric Methods; Equations for Green's Functions and Perturbative Expansions; Regularization, Renormalization, and Mass Equations. This work will be useful to anyone interested in learning or using quantum field theory, many-body physics and, as well, to many applied mathematicians, because it introduces a number of combinatoric and analytic tools which drastically simplify, and at times bypass, treatments which customarily take up most of the bulk of the standard texts. It is part of the Frontiers in Physics series, edited by David Pines.

Conformal Field Theory: New Non-perturbative Methods In String And Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)

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Conformal Field Theory: New Non-perturbative Methods In String And Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)

Manufacturer: Westview Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813342147

Book Description

This book consists of pedagogical lectures delivered at the Feza Gursey Institute in 1998 on non-perturbative approaches, or conformal field theory, the newer subject area that combines the work of physicists and mathematicians in an effort to extend understanding beyond the current, accepted notions of quantum field theory. Quantum field theory has been with us for over 75 years, but it only in the last 25 that physicists and mathematicians have jointly ventured out to explore its realms beyond the reach of perturbation theory, to the great benefit of both disciplines. Conformal Field Theory consists of pedagogical lectures delivered at the Feza Gursey Institute, Istanbul, in the summer of 1998 on some of these non-perturbative approaches. The topics of these lectures are central to our emerging understanding of conformal field theory and its importance to both statistical mechanics and string theory. Lectures include Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten models, the WZNW model as a prototype of general CFT models, meromorphic CFT, Monstrous Moonshine and the classification of CFT, the non-perturbative dynamics of four-dimensional models, and a derivation of the hadronic structure functions from quantum chromodynamics. The book is suitable for advanced graduate students and researchers in theoretical particle or statistical physics as well as pure mathematicians.

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Frontiers In Field Theory

Manufacturer: Nova Science Publishers
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Binding: Hardcover

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Frontiers in Field Theory, Quantum Gravity and Strings

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Frontiers in Field Theory, Quantum Gravity and Strings
J. Maharana, S. Mukhi, S. Kalyana Rama R.K. Kaul
Manufacturer: Nova Science Publishers
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Binding: Library Binding

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Frontiers in Quantum Field Theory: Proceedings of the International Workshop Wulumuqi, China 10-19 August 1996

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Frontiers in Quantum Field Theory: Proceedings of the International Workshop Wulumuqi, China 10-19 August 1996

Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
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Binding: Hardcover

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