Photon properties from gauge theories

[Yoran91]

Hello everyone,

I read on Wikipedia that a lot of the properties of photons are explained by them being the quanta of an abelian gauge field (link).

Does anyone happen to have a good source on this? I haven't learned anything about gauge theories yet, so I'm looking for an introductory text. So far I've only been able to find very tough textbooks on the matter.

Thank you in advance,
Yoran.

 

[fzero]

Feynman has a small book of lectures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QED:_The_Strange_Theory_of_Light_and_Matter that explains the concepts at a very basic level. It takes a fair amount of technical sophistication to bridge the gap between those lectures and the textbooks.

 

[tom.stoer]

A very important concept is the reduction of the four-potential A_α to the two transversal and physical polarizations. This is achieved by gauge symmetry.

 

[DMESONS]

I strongly encourage you reading (Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691010196/?tag=pfamazon01-20

It helps you to understand all topics related to QFT

 

[tom.stoer]

I can't recomment this book; it's partially rather confusing, especially when it comes to intuitio and explanations.