We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2009
She [field theory] is not a robust mate ready to pitch in and lend a helping hand. She is a haunting mistress, refined, and much too beautiful for hard work. She is at her best in formal dress, and thus displayed in this book, where rigor will be found to be absolutely absent.
Bryce S. DeWittSince the above characterization appeared [1] in 1965 we have witnessed great progress in quantum field theory, our description of fundamental particles and their interactions. This book displays her in informal dress, robust and ready to give results, rigorous, while at a pedestrian mathematical level. By approximating space–time by a collection of points on a lattice we get a number of benefits:
it serves as a precise but simple definition of quantum fields, which has its own beauty;
it brings to the fore and clarifies essential aspects such as renormalization, scaling, universality, and the role of topology;
it makes a fruitful connection to statistical physics;
it allows numerical simulations on a computer, giving truly nonperturbative results as well as new physical intuition into the behavior of the system.
This book is based on notes of a lecture course given to advanced undergraduate students during the period 1984–1995. An effort was made to accomodate those without prior knowledge of field theory.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
