Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Notation and Constants
- 1 Particle Physics Landscape
- 2 Preliminary Concepts: Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
- 3 Collisions and Decays
- 4 Conservation Rules and Symmetries
- 5 FromWave Functions to Quantum Fields
- 6 A Brief Overview of Quantum Electrodynamics
- 7 From Hadrons to Partons
- 8 Quantum Chromodynamics
- 9 Weak Interaction
- 10 Electroweak Interaction
- 11 Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
- 12 The Standard Model and Beyond
- Appendix A Elements of Group Theory for Particle Physics
- Appendix B Special Unitary Group SU(2)
- Appendix C Special Unitary Group SU(3) and SU(N)
- Appendix D Lorentz and Poincaré Groups
- Appendix E Calculating with the Dirac Delta Distribution
- Appendix F Contour Integration in the Complex Plane
- Appendix G Useful Formulas with γ Matrices
- Appendix H Fermi’s Golden Rule and Time-Dependent Perturbation
- References
- Index
6 - A Brief Overview of Quantum Electrodynamics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Notation and Constants
- 1 Particle Physics Landscape
- 2 Preliminary Concepts: Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
- 3 Collisions and Decays
- 4 Conservation Rules and Symmetries
- 5 FromWave Functions to Quantum Fields
- 6 A Brief Overview of Quantum Electrodynamics
- 7 From Hadrons to Partons
- 8 Quantum Chromodynamics
- 9 Weak Interaction
- 10 Electroweak Interaction
- 11 Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
- 12 The Standard Model and Beyond
- Appendix A Elements of Group Theory for Particle Physics
- Appendix B Special Unitary Group SU(2)
- Appendix C Special Unitary Group SU(3) and SU(N)
- Appendix D Lorentz and Poincaré Groups
- Appendix E Calculating with the Dirac Delta Distribution
- Appendix F Contour Integration in the Complex Plane
- Appendix G Useful Formulas with γ Matrices
- Appendix H Fermi’s Golden Rule and Time-Dependent Perturbation
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter introduces how we can use the quantum fields introduced in the previous chapter to access amplitudes and, thus, measurable quantities, such as the cross sections and the particle lifetime. More specifically, an educational tour of quantum electrodynamics (QED), which describes the interaction of electrons (or any charged particles) with photons, is proposed. Although this chapter uses concepts from quantum field theory, it is not a course on that topic. Rather, the aim here is to expose the concepts and prepare the reader to be able to do simple calculations of processes at the lowest order. The notions of gauge invariance and the S-matrix are, however, explained. Many examples of Feynman diagrams and the calculation of the corresponding amplitudes are detailed. Summation and spin averaging techniques are also presented. Finally, the delicate concept of renormalisation is explained, leading to the notion of the running coupling constant.
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- Fundamentals of Particle PhysicsUnderstanding the Standard Model, pp. 167 - 223Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023