Quantum Quantum Field Theory books for undergraduates

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Advanced undergraduates seeking Quantum Field Theory (QFT) resources are recommended to consider M. D. Schwartz's "Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model" for its comprehensive coverage, although it may not serve as a standalone text. Other notable suggestions include Richard Mattuck's "A Guide to Feynman Diagrams in Many-Body Problems" and Lancaster & Blundell's "Quantum Field Theory for Gifted Amateurs," both praised for their clarity and accessibility. Zee's "Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell" is critiqued for its lack of depth and organization, making it less suitable for beginners. The discussion emphasizes the importance of supplementing primary texts with additional resources and lecture notes available online. Overall, a multi-text approach is advocated for a thorough understanding of QFT.
Joker93
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Hello, I would appreciate it if someone would suggest some Quantum Field Theory books that an advanced undergraduate could read.
Thank you!
 
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My favorite at the moment is

M. D. Schwartz, Quantum field theory and the Standard Model, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, 2014.
 
vanhees71 said:
My favorite at the moment is

M. D. Schwartz, Quantum field theory and the Standard Model, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, 2014.
Is it suitable for somebody who has finished two courses on Quantum Mechanics, a course on Electromagnetism and a course on Special and General Relativity and also a lot of math courses?
 
This is not really a QFT text, but it gives you a very good intro to Feynman diagrams and its application to many-body physics (to counter the earlier suggestion of QFT and its application to particle physics). It is suitable for the background that you stared, provided that you have done Second Quantization in your QM course.

Richard Mattuck "A Guide To Feynman Diagram In Many-Body Problem"

And the best part of this is that it is a Dover book, so it is dirt cheap!

Zz.
 
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Joker93 said:
Is it suitable for somebody who has finished two courses on Quantum Mechanics, a course on Electromagnetism and a course on Special and General Relativity and also a lot of math courses?
This is very well sufficient. Note that I recommended a book about relativistic Quantum Field Theory and high-energy particle theory. @ZaferZ 's book is about non-relativistic QFT, and it's a very good one too. For this purpose, there's also

A. L. Fetter and J. D. Walecka, Quantum Theory of Many-Particle Systems, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1971.

and
J. W. Negele and H. Orland, Quantum Many-Particle Systems, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Redwood City, Calif., 1987.

Of course, many techniques and calculational tools (including Feynman diagrams) occur in both applications of QFT, i.e., relativistic high energhy particle physics (mostly vacuum QFT to evaluate S-matrix elements of scattering processes) and many-body theory (non-relativistic for all kinds of condensed-matter physics and relativistic in relativistic heavy-ion collisions).
 
The book suggested by vanhees71 is nice, but I also want to suggest the book below:
Lancaster & Blundell, Quantum Field Theory for Gifted Amateur
 
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ZapperZ said:
This is not really a QFT text, but it gives you a very good intro to Feynman diagrams and its application to many-body physics (to counter the earlier suggestion of QFT and its application to particle physics). It is suitable for the background that you stared, provided that you have done Second Quantization in your QM course.

Richard Mattuck "A Guide To Feynman Diagram In Many-Body Problem"

And the best part of this is that it is a Dover book, so it is dirt cheap!

It's a really nice book, and in fact it also treats second quantization very clearly - the only problem is that second quantization is presented late in the book, but one can read it out of order.
 
Another vote for Lancaster and Blundell (for conceptual understanding), together with
Greiner and Reinhardt - Field Quantization (for detailed pedagogic derivations).

Schwartz, in my opinion, is too comprehensive for a first introduction to QFT.
 
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Thank you all for your suggestions.

What about Zee's Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell? I used his gravitation book and I liked it very much.
 
  • #10
I think that Zee's book "Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell" is better for learning GR that his book "Quantum Theory in a Nutshell" is for learning quantum field theory.
 
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  • #11
George Jones said:
I think that Zee's book "Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell" is better for learning GR that his book "Quantum Theory in a Nutshell" is for learning quantum field theory.
Could you please explain the reason for this?
 
  • #12
Zee's book is a mess, except for some 3-4 valuable insights (graviton propagator, gravitational interactions of 2 light rays). I think he wrote a group theory book last year which also received plenty bad reviews. Apparently only his GR book seems ok. Until now it's 1-2, or 33% OK. One certainly doesn't need a book on QM from him.
 
  • #13
dextercioby said:
Zee's book is a mess, except for some 3-4 valuable insights (graviton propagator, gravitational interactions of 2 light rays). I think he wrote a group theory book last year which also received plenty bad reviews. Apparently only his GR book seems ok. Until now it's 1-2, or 33% OK. One certainly doesn't need a book on QM from him.
But its goodreads rating is pretty good though: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/153916.Quantum_Field_Theory_in_a_Nutshell
 
  • #14
You can judge a book thoroughly only by comparing it to others. I would not put Zee's book ahead of Ryder's, Ramond's and even in the path-integral section it's still behind Bailin & Love. Calculations are never spelled out for the reader.
Chapters 5 and 6 of Zee's book are a distraction to the reader and they are follwed by an-ill prepared overview of the BtSM physics.
 
  • #15
What is nice about Lancaster and Blundell and Schwartz is that they give good explanations of WIlson's effective theory viewpoint of renormalization.

Zee's QFT book is very interesting after one has learned QFT, not so much before.

An old book that is very good for learning the basics of QFT is Mandl and Shaw. I first learned QFT from Mandl and Shaw and from Mattuck. However, like many old books, neither Mandl and Shaw nor Mattuck explain QFT using Wilson's viewpoint (Mattuck doesn't need it since he is doing condensed matter - Wilson's insight was that relativistic field theory is really like condensed matter field theory). Even Schwartz puts the Wilson's view late in his book, preferring to stress calculations first. The Wilsonian viewpoint is a very important conceptual advance that was not known when Feynman, Schwinger, Tomonaga etc worked out renormalization. The Wilsonian viewpoint is also important for theories that may not be effective theories, since it also is a good for understanding asymptotic freedom and asymptotic safety.
 
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  • #16
atyy said:
neither Mandl and Shaw nor Mattuck explain QFT using Wilson's viewpoint
If Wilson's viewpoint is equivalent to renormalization group, then Mattuck's last chapter covers it. Otherwise I like to know what is Wilson's viewpoint!
 
  • #17
ShayanJ said:
If Wilson's viewpoint is equivalent to renormalization group, then Mattuck's last chapter covers it. Otherwise I like to know what is Wilson's viewpoint!

I don't think it has Wilson's reonormalization group. Wilson's renormalization group has, in a sense, no new equations, and is the same as the old Gell Mann and Low renormalization group. It's mainly interpretation :P

https://quantumfrontiers.com/tag/renormalization-group/
 
  • #18
dextercioby said:
Zee's book is a mess, except for some 3-4 valuable insights (graviton propagator, gravitational interactions of 2 light rays).
Zee's book is a mess for a first QFT textbook, but is full of valuable insights after you already learned this stuff from a proper textbook. Concerning particular insights, I like very much how he explained the physical idea of renormalization through a dialogue between a theoretician, an experimentalist, and a confused student.
 
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  • #19
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  • #20
Zee's book is among the few books I explicitly advise against to being used as a textbook to learn QFT. It's very superficial. Instead of packing only the essential part into the nutshell and treat this carefully Zee tries to explain too many topics without working anyone out at the necessary detail.
 
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  • #22
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  • #23
Guys, one last question:
Do you think that Schwartz's book Quantum Field Theory and the Standard model is suitable for an advanced undergrad?
 
  • #24
Joker93 said:
Guys, one last question:
Do you think that Schwartz's book Quantum Field Theory and the Standard model is suitable for an advanced undergrad?

Personally, I don't think it is if you are looking for only one book. I don't think there is any single book that an advanced undergraduate can use as his only book to self-study the subject. My recommendation is to try Schwartz, which is very good and suitable for an advanced undergraduate, but not as the only book - when you get stuck somewhere in Schwartz, try some other books or the many lecture notes one can find on the web.
 
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  • #25
atyy said:
Personally, I don't think it is if you are looking for only one book. I don't think there is any single book that an advanced undergraduate can use as his only book to self-study the subject. My recommendation is to try Schwartz, which is very good and suitable for an advanced undergraduate, but not as the only book - when you get stuck somewhere in Schwartz, try some other books or the many lecture notes one can find on the web.
If I am going to buy one book then, which one would you suggest? Of course I would supplement it with other sources that I will find from the web.
 
  • #27
Student Friendly Quantum Field Theory 2nd Edition by Robert D. Klauber
This book is also recommended, although it is said to contain many typos.
 
  • #28
Joker93 said:
If I am going to buy one book then, which one would you suggest? Of course I would supplement it with other sources that I will find from the web.

I'd start with David Tong's notes that MinasKar recommended in post #26 and then try http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic521209.files/QFT-Schwartz.pdf or http://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~mark/ms-qft-DRAFT.pdf and http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~nayak/many_body.pdf (second quantization is the language that condensed matter physicists use to turn quantum mechanics of many identical particles into quantum field theory) since they are free.
 
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  • #31
ShayanJ said:
I have. And I think if the OP wants to buy only one book, it should be this one.
Sorry, I missed the post...
 
  • #32
I also liked Maggiore's text and think he explains the symmetries of the various QFT's presented in a very accessible and easy to follow manner. I've used Schwartz as a sort of dip-in-and-out-of book. It's very broad in its coverage but more often than not I have gone to his book to look (and found) for a derivation of something simply quoted in a paper, e.g deriving the quark distribution function in terms of Fourier transforms of forward non local matrix elements which I hadn't seen elsewhere.
 
  • #33
eltodesukane said:
Student Friendly Quantum Field Theory 2nd Edition by Robert D. Klauber
This book is also recommended, although it is said to contain many typos.

I like Lancaster and Blundell, short chapters and you can easily work thru the problems (that is what I do when I am substitute teaching at the local high schools when not teaching). Klauber is good, but I found that I had to do a lot of gap filling in my knowledge to work thru it.

Both are excellent, but Klauber is a little more advanced.

As an aside, I picked up Lancaster and Blundell at a used book store for $15 US (it was in pristine shape, not a mark in it). Look for used copies of either.
 
  • #34
Dr Transport said:
I like Lancaster and Blundell, short chapters and you can easily work thru the problems (that is what I do when I am substitute teaching at the local high schools when not teaching). Klauber is good, but I found that I had to do a lot of gap filling in my knowledge to work thru it.

Both are excellent, but Klauber is a little more advanced.

As an aside, I picked up Lancaster and Blundell at a used book store for $15 US (it was in pristine shape, not a mark in it). Look for used copies of either.

Amazon.com prices: (it's getting ridiculous)
eTextbook $27.61
Hardcover $110.00
Paperback from $788.61
 
  • #35
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  • #36
eltodesukane said:
Paperback from $788.61
It can't be true. :wideeyed:
 

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