Can anyone suggest good CFT references?

[pinu]

Can anyone suggest "good" CFT references?

Well, by "good" I mean the way they describe the theory are physical rather than mathematical. Actually I want to understand statistical mechanics using CFT as a tool. Thanks in advance!

 

[physicus]

The standard reference is a review by Ginsparg: http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9108028
It is quite readable, but does not contain references to statistical physics. You might find it too mathematical.

A nice set of video lectures from Perimeter Institute are these: http://www.perimeterscholars.org/327.html
They contain an nice motivation of CFTs via statistical mechanics. And, as far as I remember, they are not too formal.

I suppose other people will have more ideas.

 

[radium]

Conformal Field Theory by Di Francesco, Mathieu, and Senechal is kind of a bible of CFT. It is pretty advanced but does provide an introduction to stat mech and QFT in the beginning which I thought was very good.

 

[QGravity]

The Book "Conformal Invariance and Critical Phenomena" provide a good account of CFT as applied to statistical systems.

also a brief lecture by J.Cardy : "Conformal Field Theory and Statistical Mechanics"

Abstract :
The lectures provide a pedagogical introduction to the methods of CFT as applied to two-dimensional critical behaviour.