Reviews
Zee's book is written in the colloquial style of a good blackboard lecture, with gems of wisdom and amusing but relevant anecdotes scattered throughout. Zee has an infectious enthusiasm and a remarkable talent for slicing through technical mumbo jumbo to arrive at the heart of a problem. Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell is quite simply a triumph. I have not had this much fun with a physics book since reading The Feynman Lectures on Physics. . . . The purpose of Zee's book is not to turn students into experts--it is to make them fall in love with the subject. And Zee succeeds brilliantly. Moreover, there is nothing superficial about the depth of understanding or the choice of topics in Zee's book. The author speaks with the clarity and authority that come only from a leading practitioner in the field. . . . [I]t is for anyone who wishes to experience the sheer beauty and elegance of quantum field theory., "Quantum field theory is an extraordinarily beautiful subject, but it can be an intimidating one. The profound and deeply physical concepts it embodies can get lost, to the beginner, amidst its technicalities. In this book, Zee imparts the wisdom of an experienced and remarkably creative practitioner in a user-friendly style. I wish something like it had been available when I was a student." --Frank Wilczek, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "This is a fantastic book--exciting, amusing, unique, and very valuable." --Clifford V. Johnson, University of Durham, "Finally! Zee has written a ground-breaking quantum field theory text based on the course I made him teach when I chaired the Princeton physics department. With utmost clarity he gives the eager student a light-hearted and easy-going introduction to the multifaceted wonders of quantum field theory. I wish I had this book when I taught the subject." --Marvin L. Goldberger, President, Emeritus, California Institute of Technology, " Zee's book is written in the colloquial style of a good blackboard lecture, with gems of wisdom and amusing but relevant anecdotes scattered throughout. Zee has an infectious enthusiasm and a remarkable talent for slicing through technical mumbo jumbo to arrive at the heart of a problem. Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell is quite simply a triumph. I have not had this much fun with a physics book since reading The Feynman Lectures on Physics . . . . The purpose of Zee's book is not to turn students into experts--it is to make them fall in love with the subject. And Zee succeeds brilliantly. Moreover, there is nothing superficial about the depth of understanding or the choice of topics in Zee's book. The author speaks with the clarity and authority that come only from a leading practitioner in the field. . . . [I]t is for anyone who wishes to experience the sheer beauty and elegance of quantum field theory. " ---Zvi Bern, Physics Today, "Tony Zee explains quantum field theory with a clear and engaging style. For budding or seasoned condensed matter physicists alike, he shows us that field theory is a nourishing nut to be cracked and savored." --Matthew P.A. Fisher, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, "This book is perhaps the most user-friendly introductory text to the essentials of quantum field theory and its many modern applications. With his physically intuitive approach, Professor Zee makes a serious topic more reachable for beginners, reducing the conceptual barrier while preserving enough mathematical details necessary for a firm grasp of the subject." --Bei Lok Hu, University of Maryland, "This book is filled with charming explanations that students will find beneficial." --Ed Witten, Institute for Advanced Study, "Zee's book is written in the colloquial style of a good blackboard lecture, with gems of wisdom and amusing but relevant anecdotes scattered throughout. Zee has an infectious enthusiasm and a remarkable talent for slicing through technical mumbo jumbo to arrive at the heart of a problem. Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell is quite simply a triumph. I have not had this much fun with a physics book since reading The Feynman Lectures on Physics . . . . The purpose of Zee's book is not to turn students into experts--it is to make them fall in love with the subject. And Zee succeeds brilliantly. Moreover, there is nothing superficial about the depth of understanding or the choice of topics in Zee's book. The author speaks with the clarity and authority that come only from a leading practitioner in the field. . . . [I]t is for anyone who wishes to experience the sheer beauty and elegance of quantum field theory." --Zvi Bern, Physics Today, "Like the famous Feynman Lectures on Physics, this book has the flavor of a good blackboard lecture. Zee presents technical details, but only insofar as they serve the larger purpose of giving insight into quantum field theory and bringing out its beauty." --Stephen M. Barr, University of Delaware, Zee's book is written in the colloquial style of a good blackboard lecture, with gems of wisdom and amusing but relevant anecdotes scattered throughout. Zee has an infectious enthusiasm and a remarkable talent for slicing through technical mumbo jumbo to arrive at the heart of a problem. Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell is quite simply a triumph. I have not had this much fun with a physics book since reading The Feynman Lectures on Physics . . . . The purpose of Zee's book is not to turn students into experts--it is to make them fall in love with the subject. And Zee succeeds brilliantly. Moreover, there is nothing superficial about the depth of understanding or the choice of topics in Zee's book. The author speaks with the clarity and authority that come only from a leading practitioner in the field. . . . [I]t is for anyone who wishes to experience the sheer beauty and elegance of quantum field theory. ---Zvi Bern, Physics Today
Table of Content
Preface xi Convention, Notation, and Units xv PART I: MOTIVATION AND FOUNDATION I.1 Who Needs It? 3 I.2 Path Integral Formulation of Quantum Physics 7 I.3 From Mattress to Field 16 I.4 From Field to Particle to Force 24 I.5 Coulomb and Newton: Repulsion and Attraction 30 I.6 Inverse Square Law and the Floating 3-Brane 38 I.7 Feynman Diagrams 41 I.8 Quantizing Canonically and Disturbing the Vacuum 61 I.9 Symmetry 70 I.10 Field Theory in Curved Spacetime 76 I.11 Field Theory Redux 84 PART II: DIRAC AND THE SPINOR II.1 The Dirac Equation 89 II.2 Quantizing the Dirac Field 103 II.3 Lorentz Group and Weyl Spinors 111 II.4 Spin-Statistics Connection 117 II.5 Vacuum Energy, Grassmann Integrals, and Feynman Diagrams for Fermions 121 II.6 Electron Scattering and Gauge Invariance 130 II.7 Diagrammatic Proof of Gauge Invariance 135 PART III: RENORMALIZATION AND GAUGE INVARIANCE III.1 Cutting Off Our Ignorance 145 III.2 Renormalizable versus Nonrenormalizable 154 III.3 Counterterms and Physical Perturbation Theory 158 III.4 Gauge Invariance: A Photon Can Find No Rest 167 III.5 Field Theory without Relativity 172 III.6 The Magnetic Moment of the Electron 177 III.7 Polarizing the Vacuum and Renormalizing the Charge 183 PART IV: SYMMETRY AND SYMMETRY BREAKING IV.1 Symmetry Breaking 193 IV.2 The Pion as a Nambu-Goldstone Boson 202 IV.3 Effective Potential 208 IV.4 Magnetic Monopole 217 IV.5 Nonabelian Gauge Theory 226 IV.6 The Anderson-Higgs Mechanism 236 IV.7 Chiral Anomaly 243 PART V: FIELD THEORY AND COLLECTIVE PHENOMENA V.1 Superfluids 257 V.2 Euclid, Boltzmann, Hawking, and Field Theory at Finite Temperature 261 V.3 Landau-Ginzburg Theory of Critical Phenomena 267 V.4 Superconductivity 270 V.5 Peierls Instability 273 V.6 Solitons 277 V.7 Vortices, Monopoles, and Instantons 282 PART VI: FIELD THEORY AND CONDENSED MATTER VI.1 Fractional Statistics, Chern-Simons Term, and Topological Field Theory 293 VI.2 Quantum Hall Fluids 300 VI.3 Duality 309 VI.4 The s Models as Effective Field Theories 318 VI.5 Ferromagnets and Antiferromagnets 322 VI.6 Surface Growth and Field Theory 326 VI.7 Disorder: Replicas and Grassmannian Symmetry 330 VI.8 Renormalization Group Flow as a Natural Concept in High Energy and Condensed Matter Physics 337 PART VII: GRAND UNIFICATION VII.1 Quantizing Yang-Mills Theory and Lattice Gauge Theory 353 VII.2 Electroweak Unification 361 VII.3 Quantum Chromodynamics 368 VII.4 Large N Expansion 377 VII.5 Grand Unification 391 VII.6 Protons Are Not Forever 397 VII.7 SO(10) Unification 405 PART VIII: GRAVITY AND BEYOND VIII.1 Gravity as a Field Theory and the Kaluza-Klein Picture 419 VIII.2 The Cosmological Constant Problem and the Cosmic Coincidence Problem 434 VIII.3 Effective Field Theory Approach to Understanding Nature.437 VIII.4 Supersymmetry: A Very Brief Introduction 443 VIII.5 A Glimpse of String Theory as a 2-Dimensional Field Theory 452 Closing Words 455 APPENDIXES: A. Gaussian Integration and the Central Identity of Quantum Field Theory 459 B. A Brief Review of Group Theory 461 C. Feynman Rules 471 D. Various Identities and Feynman Integrals 475 E. Dotted and Undotted Indices and the Majorana Spinor 479 Solutions to Selected Exercises 483 Further Reading 501 Index 505 Closing Words 455 APPENDIXES: A. Gaussian Integration and the Central Identity of Quantum Field Theory 459 B. A Brief Review of Group Theory 461 C. Feynman Rules 471 D. Various Identities and Feynman Integrals 475 E. Dotted and Undotted Indices and the Majorana Spinor 479 Solutions to Selected Exercises 483 Further Reading 501 Index 505
