Which books are recommended for mastering QED calculations in QFT?

AI Thread Summary
Recommended books for mastering QED calculations in quantum field theory (QFT) include Mandl and Shaw, Peskin and Schroeder, and Srednicki, which provide a solid foundation and worked examples. It is noted that while QED is a focus, understanding broader QFT concepts like non-abelian gauge theories is essential. For those interested in computational details, Itzykson and Zuber's book is highlighted for its depth. The discussion emphasizes the importance of having resources that include problems with solutions for effective learning. Overall, a combination of these texts will enhance understanding of QED within the context of QFT.
jdstokes
Messages
520
Reaction score
1
Hi all,

I'm currently learning QFT out of Mandl and Shaw supplemented by Peskin and Schroeder.

What are the best books for getting experience with QED calculations? Problems with worked solutions would be ideal.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I think Ryder is definitely worth having.

Another note. Are you learning QED or are you learning QFT? Because QFT contains a lot of things that you simply won't see in QED, so it's good to keep a broad outlook (anomalies*, non-abelian gauge theories, non-perturbative effects).

* Well, more than what is in QED.
 
malawi_glenn said:
We have book-question section on this forum, see "Academic & Career Guidance" --> "Science Book Reviews"

I'm moving this there. Perhaps the OP should do a search of the book review forum, since there are a plethora of threads on books for QFT.
 
jdstokes said:
Hi all,

I'm currently learning QFT out of Mandl and Shaw supplemented by Peskin and Schroeder.

What are the best books for getting experience with QED calculations? Problems with worked solutions would be ideal.

Do you really mean QED specifically? And at what level are you interested? I mean do you want to go into multiloop calculations?

If you focus on QED and up to one loop only, there is not much to calculate. And all the basic calculations are done in the standard QFT books (I love Srednicki's book)
 
We're going to cover basically the first 9 chapters of Mandl and Shaw: Lagrangian field theory, Klein gordon and Dirac field, covariant photon theory, S-matrix expansion, Feynman diagrams and rules, QED processes in lowest order and radiative corrections.

No multi-loop expansions.

I will be learning non-abelian gauge theories and the standard model, but not for another 2 months or so.
 
jdstokes said:
We're going to cover basically the first 9 chapters of Mandl and Shaw: Lagrangian field theory, Klein gordon and Dirac field, covariant photon theory, S-matrix expansion, Feynman diagrams and rules, QED processes in lowest order and radiative corrections.

No multi-loop expansions.

I will be learning non-abelian gauge theories and the standard model, but not for another 2 months or so.

Ok. SO you basically simply need a good QFT book as an extra reference?

Correct me if I am wrong by Mandl and Shaw only use canonical quantization, right? No path integral?


SO if I think about books that are pedagogically good and which are suitable at the level you are pursuing now, I would say that Srednicki would be very valuable. Maybe also Maggiore (A moderne introduction to quantum field theory).
 

Similar threads

Replies
2
Views
1K
Replies
9
Views
4K
Replies
1
Views
2K
Replies
1
Views
2K
Replies
3
Views
4K
Replies
23
Views
10K
Back
Top