Quantum Field Theory

Fall 2022    Welcome to PH6048! Relativistic Quantum Field Theory is the fundamental framework underlying the description of how Nature works at her most microscopic level. Depending on your background, this may not be an easy class, but if you do exert the mental effort I believe you'll find the course intellectually rewarding!
  1. Textbooks & Lecture Notes
    1. An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, by Peskin and Schroeder
    2. Chapter 5 and 10 of Analytical Methods in Physics
    3. Lecture Notes on Field Theory (Check for updates.)
  2. Class Venue: S4-623
  3. Class Times: Wed 9 - 9:50 am and Thur 10 - 11:50 pm
  4. My Office: S4-718
  5. E-mail: yizen [dot] chu [at] gmail [dot] com
  6. My Office Hours: None. Just come look for me.
  7. Graduate Teaching Assistants: Wei-Hao Chen
- Yi-Zen
  • Disability     If you have a disability that you think I should know about, and if you need special accomodations, please feel free to speak to me after class or e-mail me to set up a meeting.    
  • Academic Integerity     You are encouraged to discuss with your classmates the material covered in class, and even work together on your assignments. However, the work you turn in must be the result of your own effort. If I find that you copied your work from some place else, you will immediately receive zero credit for that particular piece of work. If you plagarized your classmate, your classmate will also receive zero credit for her/his/their work, unless (s)he/they can prove to my satisfaction (s)he/they were unwilling participant(s) of your dishonesty.

Lecture Videos

Videos of the lectures can be found here.
Syllabus and Grading Scheme

The course material will include:
  • Spacetime Symmetries and Elements of Group Representations
  • (Semi-)Classical Field Theory in Minkowski Spacetime
  • Canonical Quantization
  • Path Integrals
  • Perturbative Scattering Theory
Because I wish to reward hard work during the semester, I will give most weight -- 75% of your total grade -- to the homework you turn in. The rest of the 25% will be for the final.

Homework (75%):     I recommend starting your homework as soon as possible -- do not wait until the day before it is due to do it! Note: I will not accept late homework -- just turn in whatever you have done at the time/day it is due.
  1. Due Thursday 13 October: AM 5.52, 5.53, 5.56, 5.58, 5.60, 5.66, 5.68, 5.79, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.13, 10.18; D1, D2, D3
  2. Due Thursday 10 November: AM 10.18, 10.20, 10.22, 10.24, 10.25, 10.26-10.31, 10.33, 10.34, either 10.35 or 10.36, 10.37, 10.38, 10.39, 10.40, 10.44, 10.45, 10.46
  3. Due Thursday 8 December: Fields 3.1 through 3.10; 3.12 through 3.17. [For eq. 3.1.84, 3.5, the \sigma(1), \sigma(2), ..., should really be \pi(1), \pi(2), etc. Also, Problem 3.5 essentially involves the proof of Wick's theorem using the operator method; see Peskin and Schroeder \S 4.3. Ignore Problem 3.11; it is wrong.] [Problem 3.15 -- Added some hints here.]
  4. Due Friday 6 January 2023: Fields 3.16, 3.20, 3.21, 3.28, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 6.1, 6.2, 9.1.
Final Presentations (25%)

Due 4 and 5 January 2023. Working in groups of two, solve one of the problems here, and present its solutions in class over a 1 hour session.

QFT Textbooks

QFT in Curved Spacetime

QFT Lectures

(Mostly links to amazon.com -- out of convenience; not an endorsement of their business practices.)

Acknowledgements

While developing this course, I have taken inspiration from several of the textbooks & video lectures listed above.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of mine (Yi-Zen Chu). The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the National Central University.