Prerequisites for Quantum Electrodynamics

[maverick280857]

Ah! Ok! So you are interested in QFT and particle physics just for the pleasure of learning the topics?

Well I wanted to do physics, but I had to get into engineering. So the answer to your question in two words is: "not just". I want to (formally) https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=122582" particle physics later in life if possible so I am keeping up my interests.

Given your situation, you should take advantage of these forums as much as possible! And when you get to learning QFT, let me know. As I have discussed here many times I dislike the conventional presentation (which feel way too "ad hoc" for me). But we can discuss that later.

Good luck!

Thank you

 

[CarlB]

It's possible to split the effort to understand elementary particles into two parts, roughly defined by internal versus external symmetries.

Of these two, the more simple, in my opinion, is the internal symmetries (less calculus). For these, the natural tool is the Measurement Algebra, which has also seen use recently in quantum statistics. The classic introduction is by Schwinger and is quite inexpensive:


Carl

 

[Hans de Vries]

and then read the Griffiths Elementary Particles book before studying QFT from anywhere else right?

No, I am interested in QFT first (and particle physics).

Griffiths is probably the best way to start in QFT. You may read in parallel
Halzen and Martin's "Quarks & Leptons", 1984 which seems to have inspired
Griffiths book from 1987 in many ways. Griffith's book follows the same
path but Halzen & Martin go a bit deeper. The both of them are a good
combination for self study.

Other good reads are Aitchinson and Hey, Volumes I and II, The third
editions are from 2002 and 2003 so they include much of the recent
experimental results. I see they are mentioned above as well.

I do like Lewis Ryder's "Quantum Field Theory" a lot.

It's good to have some feeling for the origins as well. Understanding the
historical development and knowing the people behind it. There are
many original papers in books like:

"Sources of Quantum Mechanics" B.L. van der Waerden. and
"Selected papers on Quantum Electrodynamics" Julian Schwinger.

To get to know the people there is a very entertaining book from
Martinus Veltman: Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics.
Veltman has a technical book as well which handles the whole SM:
Diagrammatica, although it has a somewhat different notation.

And then there are of course the (technical) books from Feynman:

-The Feynman lectures on Physics, Volume III (an absolute must!)
-The Theory of Fundamental Processes
-Quantum ElectrodynamicsWell, That should be enough for the time being :^)
Regards, Hans

 

[Daverz]

http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780198520740#contents" that is at about the senior undergraduate level.

That's how it's billed. I just started reading Ch. 2 on the Lorentz and Poincare group. Maybe undergrads in the UK have more under their belt, but I think the typical undergrad in the US would be lost here without an instructor to greatly expand on the material. Ryder has a more gentle introduction.

It has a number of solved problems as examples, and, at the back, it gives short solutions (not just answers) to many of the exercises. This should make it good for self-study.

Yeah, so far it looks like a very classy production.

 

[Daverz]

Interesting that you say that. The QFT book (link below) says you need to know a set of equations (some from QM, electromagnetic theory, and from relativistic QM) before you can use it. I am referring to this one: http://gabriel.physics.ucsb.edu/~mar...FT-11Feb06.pdf

Srerdnicki lists the following (which looks pretty messed up cut and pasted from the pdf file)

dσ/dΩ = |f(θ, φ)|^2
a†|ni = √n+1 |n+1i>
J±|j,mi = √j(j+1)−m(m±1) |j,m±1i
A(t) = e^+iHt/¯hA^e−iHt/¯h
H = pq˙ − L
ct′ = γ(ct − βx)
E = (p^2c^2 + m^2c^4)^1/2
E = − ˙A/c − ∇ϕ

Well, I tried. My translations to the relevant concepts:

Differential cross-section for scattering
The quantum harmonic oscillator and creation/annihilation operators
Angular momentum and the step-up/step-down operators
Time evolution of an operator
Halmitonian operator in QM
Lorentz transformations
4-momentum
Electric field from vector and scalar potentials.

You'd usually encounter these in the opposite order.

My undergraduate QM text, Gasiorowicz, has all of these, though it's assumed you are familiar with the vector potential and the differential forms of Maxwell's equations, and the relativity is only in an appendix; I suggest Schwartz's Principle of Electrodynamics for the E&M and Spacetime Physics for the relativity. QM is just as good a place as any to encounter the Hamiltonian for the first time, but you usually don't get the Langrangian. I'm not going to recommend Goldstein just for that, though. I have an old edition of Symon, which is a very good book, and I like his chapter on Lagrange methods, but I wonder if there's a Dover book with good coverage of this.

 

[George Jones]

That's how it's billed. I just started reading Ch. 2 on the Lorentz and Poincare group. Maybe undergrads in the UK have more under their belt, but I think the typical undergrad in the US would be lost here without an instructor to greatly expand on the material. Ryder has a more gentle introduction.

Yeah, so far it looks like a very classy production.

Yes, I agree that the material on the Lorentz and Poincare groups is quite terse. In fact, I haven't found a QFT book that treats this material the way I would like to see it treated, but I am quite biased with respect to this.

Maggiore based his book on a course he gave to senior undergrads in Switzerland, and I find that, typically, European physics students are exposed to more abstract mathematics than are North american students.