Quantum An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory by Michael E. Peskin

AI Thread Summary
"An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory" by Michael E. Peskin and Dan V. Schroeder is recognized as a standard textbook in quantum field theory (QFT), widely used in universities. The book is comprehensive and detailed, making it a valuable resource for mastering QFT, particularly in high energy physics. However, readers may struggle to maintain a clear understanding of the overarching concepts due to the dense formulas and intricate calculations. While the chapters on renormalization, symmetry breaking, and gauge theories are well-executed, the book has notable shortcomings, such as a poor treatment of the functional integral formalism and insufficient coverage of representation theory for groups like Lie groups and the Lorentz group. Despite its challenges, the book remains a classic and essential read for QFT enthusiasts, emphasizing calculation skills, although it contains numerous typos and foundational issues, including errors in the chapter on the renormalization group.

For those who have used this book


  • Total voters
    11
Physics news on Phys.org
This massive book on QFT is a standard text nowadays and used at many universities. The book is extensive and very detailed. If you manage to follow the text and keep up with all the nitty-gritty details, then you are well underway into mastering QFT -- but this is quite a challenge. The book is great for QFT when applied to high energy physics, but less so from a condensed matter perspective. The chapters on renormalization, symmetry breaking and gauge theories are very thorough.

It can be quite difficult to keep a bigger picture of what you are exactly doing (and why) at any given point throughout the book, as you can get easily lost in the sea of formulas and details of the calculations.

The book is lacking in some topics. For instance, the treatment of the functional integral formalism is somewhat poor. You also need to use other resources for the representation theory of groups (Lie groups and the Lorentz group in particular), because it's not really treated well here.

Still, it's already a classic and a must-read for any QFT-enthusiast.
 
It's a pretty good introduction to relativistic (vacuum) QFT. The strength is that it teaches how to calculate things, which is very important to get the idea of QFT. The drawback is the huge number of typos and some glitches in the foundations. E.g., there are dimensionful arguments in logarithms in the chapter about the renormalization group, which is kind of ironic ;-).
 
This thread only works as a summary from the original source: List of STEM Masterworks in Physics, Mechanics, Electrodynamics... The original thread got very long and somewhat hard to read so I have compiled the recommendations from that thread in an online (Google Drive) spreadsheet. SUMMARY Permits are granted so you can make comments on the spreadsheet but I'll initially be the only one capable of edition. This is to avoid the possibility of someone deleting everything either by mistake...
By looking around, it seems like Dr. Hassani's books are great for studying "mathematical methods for the physicist/engineer." One is for the beginner physicist [Mathematical Methods: For Students of Physics and Related Fields] and the other is [Mathematical Physics: A Modern Introduction to Its Foundations] for the advanced undergraduate / grad student. I'm a sophomore undergrad and I have taken up the standard calculus sequence (~3sems) and ODEs. I want to self study ahead in mathematics...

Similar threads

Replies
1
Views
3K
Replies
2
Views
4K
Replies
19
Views
5K
Replies
3
Views
6K
Replies
1
Views
3K
Back
Top