Course syllabus

Introduktion till kvantfältteori
Introduction to Quantum Field Theory

EXTP30, 7,5 credits, A (Second Cycle)

Valid for: 2013/14
Decided by: Education Board B
Date of Decision: 2013-04-10

General Information

Elective for: F5
Language of instruction: The course will be given in English

Aim

The overall purpose of the course is that the student should acquire the theoretical concepts, based on quantum mechanics and special relativity, that are needed in order to describe relativistic elementary particles and their interactions.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

• have command of the basics of the Hamilton and Lagrange formulations of classical field theory as well as the relation between symmetries of the Lagrange density and conservation laws.
• have insight about the importance of formulating theories in a Lorentz invariant way as well as how this manifests itself for different kinds of fields and other representations of the Lorentz group.
• have command of the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations and their symmetry properties as well as properties of the solutions to these.
• understand how scalar and Dirac fields are quantized and be able to use these to calculate conserved quantities such as energy and momentum.
• understand what a propagator represents and how its properties are related to causality as well as how it can be used to describe how a particle moves through space-time.
• understand how currents and densities can be formed from different combinations of Dirac and Klein-Gordon fields.
• be able to describe how the fields and the creation and annihilation operators are transformed under charge conjugation, parity and time reversal.
• understand the basic notion of perturbation theory and the meaning of asymptotic states as well as the definition of cross-section and decay width.
• have command of the perturbative expansion of correlations functions as well as scattering and decay processes and how these calculations can be simplified by the use of Feynman diagrams both for bosons and fermions.
• have command of the Feynman rules of simple theories such as Yukawa theory and quantum electrodynamics as well as understanding how these rules can be derived from the Lagrange density.
• be able to perform simple calculations of tree-level processes such as electron positron scattering and Compton scattering as well as being able to relate different processes using crossing relations.
• have insight into how the theory can be reformulated in a consistent way in order to include processes with higher order radiative corrections.

Contents

• Classical field theory
• Lorentz covariance
• Dirac and Klein-Gordon fields
• Perturbation theory
• Quantum electrodynamics
• Radiative corrections

Examination details

Grading scale: TH
Assessment: Hand-in assignments and oral examination.

Admission

Admission requirements:

• FMFN01 Quantum Mechanics, Advanced Course 1.

Required prior knowledge: FMFN10 Quantum Mechanics, Advanced Course 2 or EXTP25 Theoretical Particle Physics.
The number of participants is limited to: No

Reading list

• M. E. Peskin and D. V. Schroeder: An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory. 1995, ISBN: 0201503972.

Contact and other information

Course coordinator: Johan Rathsman, johan.rathsman@thep.lu.se
Course homepage: http://www.thep.lu.se/english/education/courses/introduction_to_quantum_field_theory/
Further information: The course is given by the Faculty of Science (FYTN10) and does not follow the study period structure.