vanesch
Oct26-03, 06:28 AM
Hello,
Three graduate level study groups are starting at superstringtheory.com
this fall (course descriptions below). All study groups are free, offered
by physicists who want to have great discussions about physics.
Registration is open at:
http://www.superstringtheory.com/school/index.html
Previous courses have been popular with theoretical physicists and
mathematicians wanting to learn a new topic outside of their
specialization, experimental physicists wanting to learn more theory,
and with physicists who are no longer active in research but still love
physics. More study groups and a journal club are planned. We hope
you, or someone you know, will join us.
Cheers,
Gavin Polhemus
Seiberg Witten Theory (sst105)
Dualities in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories have provided great
insight into the strong coupling behavior of quantum field theories. We
will read "Duality in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory" by Michael
Peskin (available free online), which uses supersymmetric QCD to
explore the confinement of quarks into mesons and baryons, symmetry
breaking, and other features of strongly coupled gauge theories. We will
study the celebrated Seiberg-Witten model, as well as the Affleck-Dine-
Seiberg Superpotential and Seiberg's non-Abelian electric-magnetic
duality.
This course covers advanced graduate level physics. Participants
should be comfortable with quantum field theory (at the level of Peskin
and Schroeder, "Introduction to Quantum Field Theory"), and have some
familiarity with supersymmetry (I like Weinberg, "The Quantum Theory of
Fields III, Supersymmetry").
Instructor Gavin Polhemus has a B.S. in Physics from Stanford
University and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago. His
research has focused on Matrix Theory, a candidate for a
nonperturbative formulation of string theory.
Quantum Field Theory (qft101)
The goal of this study group is to learn the fundamentals of quantum
field theory (QFT) using the book "An Introduction to Quantum Field
Theory" by Michael E. Peskin and Daniel V. Schroeder. By the end of the
11 weeks study group, we will have learned the basic concepts of QFT as
well as how to carry explicit calculations using Feynman diagrams
involving spin 0, spin 1/2 and spin 1 particles. Many of the applications
will involve the simplest quantum field theory with real life applications,
quantum electrodynamics. We will do explicit calculations of both tree
level (lowest order in the perturbative expansion) and loop diagrams. If
there is sufficient interest, this could be followed by a second study
group covering renormalization in more details and a third study group
to cover path integral quantization and the Standard Model.
QFT 101 covers graduate level physics. This study group is for
students who are comfortable with quantum mechanics, special relativity
and calculus.
Instructor Patrick Labelle has a Masters degree and a PhD from
Cornell University and a postdoc from McGill University. His research was
on using renormalization to simplify calculations of nonrelativistic
bound states. He has been teaching for the last six years.
Quantum Mechanics (qm101)
Quantum Mechanics 101 is graduate-level nonrelativistic quantum
mechanics course which will prepare the student for more advanced
topics such as quantum field theory. The textbook is
"Modern Quantum Mechanics" by the late Sakurai.
The prerequisites are: complex linear algebra, complex analysis,
graduate level classical mechanics and electromagnetism, and basic
quantum or wave mechanics.
This course is not about mathematical physics, so we don't do
axiomatic quantum mechanics, and some more subtle parts of Hilbert
space mathematics are put under the carpet. For a more rigorous
treatment please see "Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics"
by John von Neumann. We will study theory to be able to use it in
problem solving, so solving exercises will be a major part of the course.
The tutor, Patrick Van Esch, holds Master degrees in Electrical
Engineering and in Physics, as well as a PhD. in experimental particle
physics from the Free University of Brussels. He has held different
teaching and research positions, and is currently involved with neutron
instrumentation research at the Institut Laue Langevin. His pastime is
theoretical physics.
Three graduate level study groups are starting at superstringtheory.com
this fall (course descriptions below). All study groups are free, offered
by physicists who want to have great discussions about physics.
Registration is open at:
http://www.superstringtheory.com/school/index.html
Previous courses have been popular with theoretical physicists and
mathematicians wanting to learn a new topic outside of their
specialization, experimental physicists wanting to learn more theory,
and with physicists who are no longer active in research but still love
physics. More study groups and a journal club are planned. We hope
you, or someone you know, will join us.
Cheers,
Gavin Polhemus
Seiberg Witten Theory (sst105)
Dualities in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories have provided great
insight into the strong coupling behavior of quantum field theories. We
will read "Duality in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory" by Michael
Peskin (available free online), which uses supersymmetric QCD to
explore the confinement of quarks into mesons and baryons, symmetry
breaking, and other features of strongly coupled gauge theories. We will
study the celebrated Seiberg-Witten model, as well as the Affleck-Dine-
Seiberg Superpotential and Seiberg's non-Abelian electric-magnetic
duality.
This course covers advanced graduate level physics. Participants
should be comfortable with quantum field theory (at the level of Peskin
and Schroeder, "Introduction to Quantum Field Theory"), and have some
familiarity with supersymmetry (I like Weinberg, "The Quantum Theory of
Fields III, Supersymmetry").
Instructor Gavin Polhemus has a B.S. in Physics from Stanford
University and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago. His
research has focused on Matrix Theory, a candidate for a
nonperturbative formulation of string theory.
Quantum Field Theory (qft101)
The goal of this study group is to learn the fundamentals of quantum
field theory (QFT) using the book "An Introduction to Quantum Field
Theory" by Michael E. Peskin and Daniel V. Schroeder. By the end of the
11 weeks study group, we will have learned the basic concepts of QFT as
well as how to carry explicit calculations using Feynman diagrams
involving spin 0, spin 1/2 and spin 1 particles. Many of the applications
will involve the simplest quantum field theory with real life applications,
quantum electrodynamics. We will do explicit calculations of both tree
level (lowest order in the perturbative expansion) and loop diagrams. If
there is sufficient interest, this could be followed by a second study
group covering renormalization in more details and a third study group
to cover path integral quantization and the Standard Model.
QFT 101 covers graduate level physics. This study group is for
students who are comfortable with quantum mechanics, special relativity
and calculus.
Instructor Patrick Labelle has a Masters degree and a PhD from
Cornell University and a postdoc from McGill University. His research was
on using renormalization to simplify calculations of nonrelativistic
bound states. He has been teaching for the last six years.
Quantum Mechanics (qm101)
Quantum Mechanics 101 is graduate-level nonrelativistic quantum
mechanics course which will prepare the student for more advanced
topics such as quantum field theory. The textbook is
"Modern Quantum Mechanics" by the late Sakurai.
The prerequisites are: complex linear algebra, complex analysis,
graduate level classical mechanics and electromagnetism, and basic
quantum or wave mechanics.
This course is not about mathematical physics, so we don't do
axiomatic quantum mechanics, and some more subtle parts of Hilbert
space mathematics are put under the carpet. For a more rigorous
treatment please see "Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics"
by John von Neumann. We will study theory to be able to use it in
problem solving, so solving exercises will be a major part of the course.
The tutor, Patrick Van Esch, holds Master degrees in Electrical
Engineering and in Physics, as well as a PhD. in experimental particle
physics from the Free University of Brussels. He has held different
teaching and research positions, and is currently involved with neutron
instrumentation research at the Institut Laue Langevin. His pastime is
theoretical physics.