# I Classical field theory

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1. Apr 29, 2017

### Jianphys17

Hi, i would be curious to know what would be the prerequisites for learning the classical field theory !

2. Apr 29, 2017

### hilbert2

You first have to understand the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics of point masses, and also know something about partial differential equations and how to apply Fourier transforms.

3. Apr 29, 2017

### Jianphys17

And also, in particular I wondered if RG's knowledge was needed..

4. Apr 29, 2017

### vanhees71

Take a classical electrodynamics textbook, and you have the paradigmatic example of a classical field theory. What's needed first of all is vector calculus (div, grad, curl, line, surface, volume integrals, Helmholtz's fundmental theorem), augmented by a bit of basic theory on distributions like the Dirac $\delta$ distribution and some Fourier integrals. I think Griffiths book is pretty good as an introduction, including the aforementioned math prerequisites.

What do you mean by RG (I hate unexplained acronyms!)? I know it as abbreviation for "renormalization group", but that's for sure not needed in classical field theory. In QFT it's of course a very important thing, but something you learn when studying QFT not a prerequisite.

5. Apr 29, 2017

### Paul Colby

I'd like to plug "Classical Field Theory" by Davison E. Soper as something one might look at. It covers quite a bit of ground that isn't treated in the usual high energy texts. It's a Dover book so it's cheep.

6. Apr 29, 2017

### Jianphys17

Not, Sorry for the acronym, GR is for general relativity...

7. Apr 29, 2017

### vanhees71

For GR I recommend Landau+Lifshitz vol. II. It's also great for electrodynamics in the relativistically covariant formulation, but I'd recommend to study a less advanced more conventional book on E&M like Griffiths first.