Quantum field theory Definition and 559 Threads

In classical mechanics, the Hamiltonian and the Lagrangian are Legendre transforms of each other. By analogy, in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, the relationship between the Hamiltonian and the Lagrangian seems to be preserved. Where can I find a derivation of the Lagrangian...

The thread https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/qft-operators-time-space-asymmetry.906369/ contains the first recommendation I have seen in these forums for Klauber's book, and instead of hijacking that thread I thought I might ask a question here. I find the book more readable than many for...

Are there thoughts as to why there is a quantum field. Does it arise from something more fundamental? Thanks for considering.

I see re normalization being discussed in many situations and it is not very clear what unites them. For example it is talked about during self energy, then when integrals are blown by high energy(in scattering problems I presume), or some problem with IR(the opposite). Then there are these...

I have read many textbooks and googled google times for a clear explanation, but I could not find one. How does raising and lowering -annihilation/ creation-(is that energy or particle number?) translate to transition probabilities of path integral.

I'm currently studying Quantum Field Theory and I have a confusion about some mathematics in page 30 of Mandl's Quantum Field Theory (Wiley 2010). Here is a screenshot of the relevant part: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsjnb3kmvmgc9p2/Screenshot%202017-01-24%2018.10.10.png?dl=0 My issue is in...

Last year I finished the undergraduate course in Mathematical Physics. This year, more precisely in March, I'm going to start the graduate course to acquire a master's degree in Physics. Now, for this course I must choose a research topic and find an advisor. This is being a little bit...

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Is CDT a QFT? Can QFT be used with it to explain fundamental particles?

What are the different approaches to solving quantum gravity that are in the framework of quantum field theory?

Hi, I have recently began studying quantum field theory and have just seen how the quantization of the complex scalar field, noting that there is invariance of the action under a phase rotation shows the existence of antiparticles. I just have a couple of questions, apologies in advance if...

Asymptotic safety in quantum gravity is a local QFT. According to many people, local quantum field theories cannot be correct in terms of being a quantum gravity theory. Lubos Motl outlines 4 reasons why they can't be right. "Quantum gravity cannot be described as a local field theory in the...

I'm studying QFT in the path integral formalism, and got stuck in deriving the Schwinger Dyson equation for a real free scalar field, L=½(∂φ)^2 - m^2 φ^2 in the equation, S[φ]=∫ d4x L[φ] ∫ Dφ e^{i S[φ]} φ(x1) φ(x2) = ∫ Dφ e^{i S[φ']} φ'(x1) φ'(x2) Particularly, it is in the Taylor series...

Hello, I would appreciate it if someone would suggest some Quantum Field Theory books that an advanced undergraduate could read. Thank you!

In quantum field theory, we use the universal cover of the Lorentz group SL(2,C) instead of SO(3,1). (The reason for this is, of course, that representations of SO(3,1) aren't able to describe spin 1/2 particles.) How is the invariant speed of light enocded in SL(2,C)? This curious fact of...

Hi all. I am looking for a book in Quantum Field Theory, not for the first read. I have already studied it for university purpose, but now i would like to study the subject again from a book to cover holes and have a deeper understanding before starting a possible PhD. I heard about Srednicki...

On page 9 of *Quantum theory of many-particle systems* by Alexander L. Fetter and John Dirk Walecka, during the derivation of the second-quantised kinetic term, there is an equality equation below: >\begin{align} \sum_{k=1}^{N} \sum_{W} & \langle E_k|T|W\rangle C(E_1, ..., E_{k-1}, W...

The Lorentz transformation operator acting on an undotted, i.e. right-handed, spinor can be expressed as $$e^{-\frac{1}{2} \sigma \cdot \mathbf{\phi} + i\frac{1}{2} \sigma \cdot \mathbf{\theta}}.$$ There is a very cool, almost childlike, derivation of this expression in Landau Vol. 4 S. 18 I've...

Sorry, I know this has been talked about many times before but I like to put the question in a direct way so I may understand. Since there are more than 10^80 particles and radiation, how can a single point in space carry the values for all these fields at the SAME time all the time if they are...

I am trying to determine what types of field theories have a Lagrangian that is symmetric under an Infinitesimal acceleration coordinate transformations. Does an infinitesimal generator of acceleration exist? How could I go about constructing this matrix?

Hello. I'm studying a course of the Quantum Field Theory and I got a question in a canonical quantization of a scalar field. I don't write a full expression of the field quantization here but the textbook said terms with ei(p⋅x - Ept) are associated with an incoming particle and terms with...

Hello I am little bit confused about one topic on theoretical Physics and that is If we want to describe our Quantum world (example atoms in metal) then should I use Quantum field theory or Quantum mechanics?

The common presentation for free field quantization proceeds with the Lorentz and Coulomb (##\phi = 0, \,\nabla \cdot \mathbf{A} = 0 ##) constraints. Then ##A## can be defined $$\mathbf{A} \propto \iint \frac{d^3 p}{\sqrt{2\omega_p}}\sum_{\lambda} \Big(e^{i\mathbf{p}\cdot...

As I understand it, the need for quantum field theory (QFT) arises due to the incompatibility between special relativity (SR) and "ordinary" quantum mechanics (QM). By this, I mean that "ordinary" QM has no mechanism to handle systems of varying number of particles, however, special relativity...

We have two theories namely,Quantum Field Theory which works very well at sub-atomic scales, and the General Relativity which works very well at very large scales.So, my question is where does statistical physics/mechanics fit in? What role statistical physics/mechanics play in today's modern...

Why is the partition function ##Z[J]=\int\ \mathcal{D}\phi\ e^{iS[\phi]+i\int\ d^{4}x\ \phi(x)J(x)}## also called the generating function? Is the partition function a q-number or a c-number? Does it make sense to talk of a partition function in classical field theory, or can we define...

Dear Sir, P 25 in quantum field theory for the gifted amateur One makes Fourier transforms from the position to the frequency space for the system of linear chain of N atoms. How can I see that in the frequency space the excitations are uncoupled . I also don’t understand equation 2.50

For a ##\phi^{3}## quantum field theory, the interaction term is ##\displaystyle{\frac{g}{3!}\phi^{3}}##, where ##g## is the coupling constant. The mass dimension of the coupling constant ##g## is ##1##, which means that ##\displaystyle{\frac{g}{E}}## is dimensionless. Therefore...

No. This is a noncovariant, observer-specific view.In the covariant, observer-independent view of fields, states are labeled instead by the causal classical solutions of hyperbolic field equations. On the collection of these the Peierls bracket is defined, which is the covariant version of the...

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How the authors came to the conclusion (eq. 4.25) that $$ U(t,t')=e^{iH_0(t-t_0)} e^{-iH(t-t')} e^{-iH_0(t'-t_0)} $$

I've discovered a potential treasure horde tucked away in the deep dark folds of the world wide web. A 1625 page mammoth on all aspects of quantum field theory by Prof. Hagen Kleinert. There's a draft ed. for free available here -...

Hello, I hope this is not a stupid question as I am not a physicist. But I was curious about how contenders for the so-called Theory of Everything view the shape of the elementary particles. I know that the basic idea of string theory is related to the shape of elementary particles as one...

Homework Statement So I am self-studying the book of Peskin&Schroeder, and there is something I don't understand on page 616. In eq. 18.80, there is a numerical factor of ½ and going from e2 to α will introduce a factor 4π when proceeding to eq. 18.84. But then there should be a numerical...

I'm reading Srednicki's Quantum Field Theory. I 'm trying to read Srednicki's presentation of Feynman Diagrams in the chapter Path Integral for the Interacting Field Theory. Link to the book: The path integral for the phi-cubed theory is equation 9.11 in the book. Please read that. I get the...

Hi everyone, I'm approaching the study of EFT but I'm facing some problems. While in QFT usually we want renormalizable theories, in EFT we don't want this costraint anymore and this opens up space for a lot more terms in the Lagrangian. My problem is that when we want to calculate amplitudes...

I know the positive field operator E+ is actually an annihilation operator a while the negative field E- is a creation operator a+. I also learned that the absorption process can be represented as E-E+, which should be the number of photons n accroding to the principle of ladder operator. Also...

Hi, I'm trying to learn some QFT at the moment, and I'm trying to understand how interactions/nonlinearities are handled with perturbation theory. I started by constructing a classical mechanical analogue, where I have a set of three coupled oscillators with a small nonlinearity added. The...

Homework Statement I'm working through Zee for some self study and I'm trying to do all the problems, which is understandably challenging. Problem 1.3.1 is where I'm currently stuck: Verify that D(x) decays exponentially for spacelike separation. Homework Equations The propagator in question...

Is the one-loop corrected vacuum expectation value of a field renormalization scheme independent?

I know that the nth order tadpole equations give you the value of constant field configurations for which the first derivative of the nth order effective potential is 0, but what does this have to do with the tadpole graphs?

Homework Statement I want to diagonalize the quadratic form $$ m_0((m_u+m_d)\pi^3\pi^3+\frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}(m_u-m_d)\pi^3\pi^8+\frac{1}{3}(m_u+m_d+4m_s)\pi^8\pi^8)$$ which can be found under equation 5.47, in order to get the mass of the η and ##\pi^0## pions. This quadratic form is produced by...

I have just finished working through Jackson's Electrodynamics and Sakurai's Modern Quantum Mechanics and was wondering if this was sufficient background for me to start studying qft. Also, would Weinberg's Books be a good place to dive in given my background or is there are a more suitable...

Consider the following extract taken from page 60 of Matthew Schwartz's 'Introduction to Quantum Field Theory':We usually calculate ##S##-matrix elements perturbatively. In a free theory, where there are no interactions, the ##S##-matrix is simply the identity matrix ##\mathbb{1}##. We can...

I have a simple question about Lewkowycz and Maldacena's paper http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.4926v2'][/PLAIN] http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.4926v2 In section 2, they consider the scalar field in BTZ background ground and require boundary condition of the scalar field, $\phi \sim e^{i\tau}$ . This...

If A and B are fermionic operators, and T the time-ordering operator, then the standard definition is T(AB) = AB, if B precedes A = - BA, if A precedes B. Why is there a negative sign? If A and B are space-like separated then it makes sense to assume that A and B anticommute. But...

Hello! I want to learn about the mathematics of General Relativity, about Topology and Differential Geometry in general. I am looking for a book that has applications in physics. But, most importantly, i want a book that offers geometrical intuition(graphs and illustrations are a huge plus) but...

In quantum field theory (QFT) from what I've read locality is the condition that the Lagrangian density ##\mathscr{L}## is a functional of a field (or fields) and a finite number of its (their) spatial and temporal derivatives evaluated at a single spacetime point ##x^{\mu}=(t,\mathbf{x})##...

I understand that the ansatz to $$(\Box +m^{2})\phi(\mathbf{x},t)=0$$ (where ##\Box\equiv\partial^{\mu}\partial_{\mu}=\eta^{\mu\nu}\partial_{\mu}\partial_{\nu}##) is of the form ##\phi(\mathbf{x},t)=e^{(iE_{\mathbf{k}}t-\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{x})}##, where...