Good quantum field theory text?

[venkat]

could anyone suggest a good quantum field theory text?
i mean a text for a beginner who is familiar with basic quantum mechanics...also, since i am going to study it by myself( i am not taking a physics course ), a text that is simple in language and informal would be great.(i mean, like griffith's qm and electrodynamics)

 

[Cyclotron Boy]

Of course, Feynmann's "real" QFT book is good, not the layman's book. However, for actual work, I can suggest two books. First, for phenomenology, I suggest G. Kane's "Modern Elementary Particle Physics." While not a FT book in its own right, it does cover a large amount of "effective" field theory, and gives you just enough to calculate things. Second, for a rigorous approach, I suggest M. Peskin and Schroeder "An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory."

Some links:

Kane's Book and,

Peskin & Schroeder

-F

 

[Dr Transport]

I suggest one of the following texts for QFT:

Quantum Field Theory, Mandl and Shaw;

Field Theories in Particle Physics, Aitchison and Hey;

Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, Bjorken and Drell;

Advanced Quantum Mechanics, J J Sakurai.

Anyone of the above are decent to read and with some effort you can work thru it and learn something. I recently picked up one of these books and started reading it, I was suprised as to how much started coming back after not working in QFT for almost 10 years.

 

[suyver]

I also liked Lewis H. Ryder's book "Quantum Field Theory".

 

[selfAdjoint]

And I'll add three recent ones.

Hatfield, Quantum Field Theories of Point Particles and Strings. Has some excellent explanations, but assumes a high level of mathematical maturity. A good "second book" to have.

Peskin & Schroeder, Introduction to Quantum Field Theory. Probably the most used text in grad school intro to QFT courses. Emphasis on doing the work, getting results, less on subtleties of interpretation or rigor.

Kaku, Quantum Field Theory. Well written, but maybe goes to fast. Covers a great deal of material, but assumes maturity. A good reference.

There is a recent book on QFT for condensed matter physicists, it seemed well written, but I only scanned it in the book store, and can't remember the name or author.

Finally, Weinberg, the Nobel Prize winning physicist (for Elerctroweak Theory), has a trilogy of big books on QFT, up through strings, that aim to be the last word. I have never worked with them so I can't comment, but I know there are others here that can.

 

[jeff]

Originally posted by venkat
...text for a beginner who is familiar with basic quantum mechanics...simple in language and informal...

For what you're looking for, it doesn't (and likely couldn't) get better than http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7573.html . In fact it's the only text that meets your requirements.

 

[venkat]

cyclotron boy,
could you please specify the name of the text by feynman on qft?
i searched amazon.com but couldn't spot it out...do ou mean the book by fenman and weinberg...'dirac memorial lectures' or something?

 

[Cyclotron Boy]

Feynmann

The two books I speak of are "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter," and "Quantum Electrodynamics (Advanced Book Classics)." The first one is a rather lightweight introduction in terms of technical details and calculational difficulty. It is, however, an excellent introduction to a rather hard-to-grasp field. The second one is a far more useful text. However, it is important to keep in mind that as with any Feynman book, you can't really gain the entire depth and detail from his book alone. I would suggest using it in conjunction with Peskin and Schroeder.

 

[venkat]

thanks...
i have with me the book QED: Strange theory of light and matter. I'll look for the other one...how about Sakurai?

 

[selfAdjoint]

...how about Sakurai?

If you mean the well known text by Sakurai, it's not a quantum field book.

 

[lethe]

Originally posted by selfAdjoint
...how about Sakurai?

If you mean the well known text by Sakurai, it's not a quantum field book.

sakurai has two texts, one quantum mechanics, and one quantum field theory. one is advanced quantum mechanics, and the other is modern quantum mechanics, i forget which is which.

 

[venkat]

'advanced qm' is a field is a text on relativistic qm and 'mordern qm' is a text on ordinary "classical qm"( what do you call the non-relativistic qm??!)

anybody please, how is sakurai?