Physics 330 -- Quantum Field Theory

Physics 330 is the first course of a 3-quarter sequence on Quantum Field Theory, the theory that provides at the same time the relativistic generalization of quantum theory and the basic formalism for theories of elementary particles. Michael Peskin gave this sequence of courses at Stanford during the 04-05 and 05-06 academic years. This web site provides an archive for the materials that he prepared.

The three quarters of Physics 330-331-332 cover:

• Physics 330: Free scalar and spinor fields, Feynman diagrams, basic processes of Quantum Electrodynamics, radiative corrections
• Physics 331: Functional integral formulation of quantum field theory, Yang-Mills theory, Quantum Chromodynamics, spontaneously broken symmetry, Higgs mechanism, Glashow-Salam-Weinberg model of weak interactions
• Physics 332: Theory of renormalization, renormalization of models with spontaneously broken symmetry, renormalization group, asymptotic freedom, operator product expansions, perturbation theory anomalies.

General Course Information for Physics 330

Problem sets for Physics 330:

• Problem Set 1 (solutions).
• Problem Set 2 (solutions).
• Problem Set 3 (solutions).
• Problem Set 4 (solutions).
• Problem Set 5 (solutions).
• Problem Set 6 (solutions).
• Problem Set 7 (solutions).
• Problem Set 8 (solutions).
• Problem Set 9 (solutions).

Final exams (and the solutions) from 2003, 2004, and 2005:

• Final Exam - fall `03 (solutions).
• Final Exam - fall `04 (solutions).
• Final Exam - fall `05 (solutions).

In contrast to my usual practice, I did not be hand out lecture notes for Physics 330. This is because the textbook is remarkably well-written (!), so I followed it closely. The outline below indicates the approximate content of the lectures in 2005:

• Sept. 26 : Quantization of the Klein-Gordon field.
• Sept. 28 : Space-time aspects of the Klein-Gordon field.
• Oct. 3 : Representations of the Lorentz group.
• Oct. 5 : The Dirac equation.
• Oct. 10 : Quantization of the Dirac field.
• Oct. 12 : More about the quantization of the Dirac field.
• Oct. 17 : Discrete symmetries of the Dirac theory
• Oct. 19 : Perturbation theory, Wick's theorem
• Oct. 24 : Feynman diagrams
• Oct. 26 : The S-matrix
• Oct. 31 : e+e- annihilation to fermions
• Nov. 2 : Mandelstam variables; Compton scattering
• Nov. 7 : Electromagnetic form factors
• Nov. 9 : g-2
• Nov. 14 : Bremsstrahlung
• Nov. 16 : Interpretation of infrared divergences
• Nov. 28 : The Kallen-Lehmann spectral representation
• Nov. 30 : The Ward Identity
• Dec. 5 : Dimensional regularization
• Dec. 7 : Momentum-dependence of the QED coupling