Qft Definition and 956 Threads

This is more of a QFT question, so the moderator may want to move it to another forum. The simplest example of a QFT that I learned was the scalar field; in Sakurai's 1967 textbook. I know the Higgs is a J=0 particle. Is it described by the simple scalar field discussed in Sakurai's text? I ask...

Hello everyone! I just finished studying basic quantum mechanics, using Liboff's "Introductory Quantum Mechanics", i.e. wavefunctions, uncertainty relations, basic 1D problems, dirac notation, angular momentum (orbital and spin, addition, eigenfunctions, Clebsch-Gordan coefficients etc)...

1. I'm having some trouble with some of the contour integrals covered in Chapter 2 of Peskin & Schroeder's Intro to QTF. I'm not so much as looking for answers to the integral (in fact, the answers are given in the textbook), but I was hoping someone could point me to some resources to use to...

Is probability (or probability current) conserved in RQM/QFT? I have never seen a simple answer to this question. As always, thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, I am currently preparing myself for my Bachelor thesis in local quantum field theory. I was encouraged by my advisor to read the books of M. Reed and Simon because of my lag of functional analysis experience but I have quite often problems understand the “obvious” conclusions. For...

During a course of QFT my teacher said that in this theory is not possible to use the operator X for the position in order to construct with the momentum P and the spin S a set of irreducible operators that charachterize particles, and that we need a different point of wiev: the irreducible...

In the canonical formulation of QFT (to which I've been exposed), it is always argued that only differences in energy are physically observable and so we can deal with the fact that the vacuum energy is infinite by redefining the vacuum such that its energy is zero and we subsequently measure...

As far as I understand it gravity is sensitive to absolute energies, as seen directly through Einstein's equation G_{\mu\nu}=8\pi GT_{\mu\nu} Thus the local geometry of spacetime is directly affected by the local energy density (and not just differences in energy). So whenever gravity is taken...

Hello everybody! I've recently decided that I'm interested in supersymmetric solitons and want to work in this area for future 2 undergrad years. I wonder what is the best place to study the general theory of solitons in QFT? Is Rubakov "Classical gauge fields" really the best book for those who...

Hi all, I have a question about the ground state of an interacting quantum field theory. The state space in non-interacting QFT is a space where each field mode (with specified momentum p) has some occupation number n. These modes are interpreted as n particles with momentum p. The vacuum is...

Hi all, can anybody help me to find literature that takes the reader on a step-by-step path from non-relativistic quantum theory to relativistic quantum theory? I imagine something like that: it starts with a single harmonic oscillator, analyzes the non-harmonic oscillator (does the...

Why is it required that interactions between fields must occur at single spacetime points in order for them to be local? For example, why must an interaction Lagrangian be of the form \mathcal{L}_{int}\sim (\phi(x))^{2} why can't one have a case where \mathcal{L}_{int}\sim\phi(x)\phi(y) where...

Hello everybody. I'm interested in some problems of bound states in external fields in QFT (especially QED). I wonder are there any lectures/books or reviews which provide modern treatment of this subject? I would like to learn more about general formalism and applications in QED (I allready...

I've been trying to fill in my mathematical blanks of things I just took as dogma before. Especially, not having a background in functional analysis, the functional derivatives often seem to me mumbo jumbo whenever things go beyond the "definition for physicists". In particular I tried looking...

I'm aware that most modern textbooks gloss over relativistic qm and jump to qft. Since I'm not that brilliant of a student I'm thinking that i should firstly familiarize myself with relativistic and then go to qft. So my first question: Is it worth it to study relativistic qm or should i jump...

I've read in a set of lecture notes that the requirement of locality and unitarity in QFT imply that the vacuum must have a non-zero energy associated with it (http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.05296v1.pdf , top of page 3 under heading "What is the problem?"). My question is, why does the locality and...

I am slightly unsure as to whether I have understood the notion of locality correctly. As far as I understand it locality is the statement that if two events occur simultaneously (i.e. at the same time) then no information can be shared between them (they are causally disconnected). Thus a...

First of all, sorry if this is in the wrong forum, wasn't quite sure which one to post it in given the question. My question is, given two space-time points ##x^{\mu}## and ##y^{\mu}##, if the events that occur at these points are simultaneous, i.e. ##x^{0}=y^{0}##, are the two events...

On page 12 of Zee's QFT in a nutshell, he rewrites an integral from dirac notation to a mixture of schrodinger/dirac My question is, since , what happened to the integrals, and shouldn't there be four wave functions instead of two? I tried writing out the integrals explicitly, thinking maybe...

I'm relatively new to QFT and was wondering how the QED vacuum has a dormant zero average-field condition if there is a zero-point energy of the field as well? How is there a zero average and a zero point energy?

I'm looking at the simplest example of an interacting theory, and this is the theory of a neutral scalar boson $\phi$ with $\lambda \phi^4$ interaction term. Can I ask: is there a physical interpretation of the `charge' through which this field interacts with itself? In particular, is \lambda...

Hello I am an incoming Biology student (college), i really wanted to take applied physics as my course but my parents told me that it is better to be a doctor, anyways, it's summer here and I started taking Calculus 1 in coursera.com (i have NO backgroud in calculus because we don't have...

Homework Statement I'm working on path integrals for fermions and I came across an exercise that ask to compute the three point functions , one of that is the: $$<0|J^{\mu}(x_1)J^{\nu}(x_2)J^{\rho}(x_3)|0> $$ where $$J^{\mu}$$ is the current $$J^{\mu}=\bar{\psi}\gamma^{\mu}\psi$$. ***Can you...

I've been working through a qft book by Sadovskii (while I wait for my Peskin book to come in) and I've used some later chapters of Griffith's Into to Elementary Particles as an introduction to some qft. My issue with both of these is that, where in classical mechanics we have the Lagrangian...

The problem statement. When an exercises say " the interaction in a QFT has dimensions Δ" , what does it mean?, it means the field or the Lagrangian has this mass dimension? In this exercise I'm trying to find the classical beta function (β-function) for the assciated couling.

In quantum mechanics, we can define the scattering amplitude f_k(\theta) for two particles as the coefficients of an outgoing spherical wave. More precisely, the asymptotic behaviour (when r\rightarrow\infty) of a wave function of two scattering particles, interacting with some short range...

The spin observable for spin 1/2 particles is represented by Pauli Matrices acting upon a 2-dimensional Hilbert Space. In RQM, forgetting about the matter-antimatter duality for the moment, that TWO-state Hilbert Space is directly related, through the Lorentz Group, to the TWO separate...

In QFT vol 3 of Weinberg write:''For d=11 the spin 2 graviton representation of little group O(9) is a symmetric traceless tensor with 9x10/2-1=44 independent components:there is one 2+(-)i3,2+(-)i3 component with J23=+(-)2, seven2+(-)i3,k components with J23=+(-)1; and twenty eight k,l...

I recently learned that with (local) gauge invariance, functional quantization needs to factor out volume factor(Faddeev-Popov procedure). Why does this has to be done?Just to remove infinity? As far as I am concerned, ##\phi^4## theory contains invariance(for example ##\phi\to\phi\cdot e^{i...

Hey guys! I was reading the following paper http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0703260 for Georgi and I have a conceptual question about it. Howard Georgi was talking about this Unparticle Physics theory and at the base of his analysis is the principle of scale invariance. So Georgi is saying what if...

The Feynman propagator is $$ G_{F}(x) = \int d^4p \, \frac{e^{-ip x}}{p^2 - m^2 + i\epsilon}. $$ I want to understand why the directions of Wick rotation in position space and momentum space are contrary. Every book I find says something like "we should keep ##xp## unchanged", but why? As we...

(I hope this post goes in this part of the forum) Hi, I was wondering if someone could help me with the following: I have a (1+1) scalar field decomposed into two different sets of modes. One set corresponds to a Minkowski frame in (t,x) coordinates, the other to a Rinder frame in conformal...

Hi all, so I've come across the following Gaussian integral in QFT...but it has a denominator and I am completely stuck! \int_{0}^{\infty} \frac{dx}{(x+i \epsilon)^{a}}e^{-B(x-A)^{2}} where a is a power I need to leave arbitrary for now, but hope to take between 0 and 1, and \epsilon is...

Hi all, I have an undergraduate degree in Physics, but I've since specialized in more environmental applications of Physics. I've taken a few quantum Physics courses as part of my degree, but, if I'm being honest, what I took from those courses was more of a mathematical view of the field, such...

I am working on Schwartz QFT book problem 14.3, particularly part (c). Basically, it asks us to evaluate the following integration. \int \cfrac{d^3 p}{2\pi^3} \omega_p e^{i \vec{p} \cdot (\vec{x}-\vec{y})} where \omega_p = \sqrt{p^2 + m^2} I could perform the angular integration, and the...

Hi! I'm desperately trying to develop a list of prerequisites that will enable me to work on topics like quantum gravity, advanced QFT (on curved spacetime etc.) etc. I am currently in the second year of an undergrad theoretical physics degree in the UK, and am heavily unsatisfied with the way...

I would like to know some of interesting topics in QFT for my major project (BS-MS); of 1 year duration... can anyone help me with topics? Thanks...

from the relativity forum https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/spacetime-in-qm-or-qft.802721/ Sonderval stated (transferred here so not off topic): http://scienceblogs.de/hier-wohnen-drachen/artikelserien/[/QUOTE'][/PLAIN] So the standard Schroedinger Equation can be used for both particles...

spacetime is classical and continuous.. so when quantum system form superposition or entanglement, how is time treated esp in qft? how does spacetime keep track of the particles of fields? or how does the fields or particles able to jump in spacetime.. how is this handle in qm or qft?

Are there any QFT books written from a mathematical perspective? Something in the same vain as V. Arnolds Mechanics and Takhtajan's QM. Thanks.

Suppose you want the 1-particle matrix elements of an operator in QFT, e.g. \langle p' |\phi^4(x)|p\rangle It seems you would calculate this perturbatively by first Fourier transforming the x-variable to q, assuming an incoming particle with momentum p, an outgoing particle with momentum p'...

If I understand what's going on (quite possibly I don't), I think my book is using bad (confusing) notation. Homework Statement As written: "Calculate ##\frac{\delta H[f]}{\delta f(z)} \ \text{where} \ H=\int G(x,y)f(y)dy##" and ##\frac{\delta H[f]}{\delta f(z)}## is the functional derivative...

Hello, I have encountered an equation in page 33 in the book of D.MacMahon titled QFT demystefied. It is the third equation from the top...how did the sum appear as a middle step of the equation? best regards. Abolaban

I'm not quite following why Wick's Theorem only applies to free fields. What part of the argument depends on a free field assumption?

Please give me some advisory about the book: Structural aspects of QFT and Noncommutative Geometry of Gerhard Grensing. I am reading QFT book of Weinberg and I have no idea to continue to read which book in QFT after finishing the Weinberg's books.

Homework Statement First of all, Happy New Year! I have to solve the following exercise (xmas gift :P) and some things are a bit vague..Here is it: For the ee--->ee scattering process, draw all amputated and connected graphs that would contribute. The hint is that one should find 10 different...

I have started reading PCT, Spin and Statistics, and All That. Are there any more recent texts that I should be looking at instead?

I'm currently in my final year at TCD and I'm looking at MSc programs in the UK in the areas of QFT, strings, CFT etc. The ones I know about are the obvious ones in London i.e KCL, Imperial, Part III, but they're out since London is so expensive and I'm extremely limited with funds. I've also...

Could somebody take a stab at explaining how can quantum fluctuations give neutral elementary particles a magnetic moment? (in the usual explanation given by QFT textbooks, I think there are people around here denying the existence of quantum fluctuations, insert the more neutral expression...

I was reading about the Klein Gordon equation of scalar fields. I notice that the hamiltonian is not Hermitian: ∂0(Φ,π)T = matrix((0,1),(-p2,0)) (Φ,π)T The Hamiltonian operator iH = matrix((0,1),(-p2,0)) is not a hermitian matrix. What does this mean? Does this mean Klein Gordon fields don't...