Which courses before GR and QFT?

[FilipLand]

Hi!

I will soon begin my third year at the theoretical physics program. I have done a bunch of classical & Lagrangian mechanics, SP, atomic physics, electromagnetism, and basic particle physics.

Is it a good idea to study general relativity and quantum field theory with this knowledge, what is your experience?

I will study abroad next study-year and am very tempted of attending these courses.

 

[Orodruin]

What is your experience with quantum mechanics and special relativity?

 

[FilipLand]

What is your experience with quantum mechanics and special relativity?

I have done one basic and two continuation (semi-advanced) courses in quantum mechanics.
For SR I have done one very basic and one semi-advanced course which was imbedded in lagrangian dynamics.

Hard to bullet point all moments, but everything is on bachelor level, maybe some very small overlap on master level.

 

[Orodruin]

It sounds as if you should have the prerequisites for introductory GR and QFT courses. Of course, it is always difficult to compare curricula from different universities.

If you want a better assessment, I would try to get hold of the course descriptions and ask a professor at your current university, who should be familiar with your current level of knowledge, if what you have studied is sufficient.

 

[FilipLand]

It sounds as if you should have the prerequisites for introductory GR and QFT courses. Of course, it is always difficult to compare curricula from different universities.

If you want a better assessment, I would try to get hold of the course descriptions and ask a professor at your current university, who should be familiar with your current level of knowledge, if what you have studied is sufficient.

maybe I should ask instead, what courses do you recommend taking before GR and QFT? Is differential geometry a must for example?

 

[Orodruin]

Is differential geometry a must for example?

This depends completely on the setup of the course. Most GR courses will give a short crash course on differential geometry. Of course it helps to already know it.

 

[Herman Trivilino]

Have you taken linear algebra?

 

[Daverz]

At the undergrad level, differential geometry refers to the differential geometry of curves and surfaces and not the more general Riemannian (technically semi-Riemannian) geometry used in GR. The former type of course would help help with mathematical intuition, but is not necessary if you can't fit it in.

 

[FilipLand]

Have you taken linear algebra?

Yes, two courses on that, I think I can get through GR and QFT with my current knowledge.

 

[FilipLand]

At the undergrad level, differential geometry refers to the differential geometry of curves and surfaces and not the more general Riemannian (technically semi-Riemannian) geometry used in GR. The former type of course would help help with mathematical intuition, but is not necessary if you can't fit it in.

Great to hear :)

 

[Daverz]

Great to hear :)

That said, it's a beautiful subject, one of the great triumphs of 19th Century mathematics.

 

[paralleltransport]

I think for QFT, the minimum prerequisite would be this:

A common mistake people make is to take QFT too early. Beyond this minimum see above, I'd say spending a few days learning 0 dimensional QFT with the path integral helps, and memorizing all forms of gaussian integrals/complex integration. Things get very messy once you start having more than 1 point particle, so it helps to understand the intuition before all the technical nightmare comes.

I personally like QFT to be understood from a statistical physics standpoint (likely because I still don't understand it very well), so I also think knowing stat mech will help once renormalization hits, but that often is a 2nd course in a QFT sequence.GR on the other hand I think has much fewer pre-requisites because most physics GR classes teaches the requisite differential geometry as you go. For GR, you need to basic classical field theory (Lagrangians, Hamiltonians), and special relativity/E&M at a level where you can push indices around comfortably.