Ph 205 Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

This is a 3-quarter course covering basic quantum field theory, including QED, renormalization, path-integrals, and Yang-Mills theory.

Textbooks
Required: Mark Srednicki, Quantum Field Theory, Cambridge University Press.
Recommended: Peskin and Schroeder, An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, Addison-Wesley; Steven Weinberg, The Quantum Theory of Fields, vols. 1,2, Cambridge University Press.

My office is 420 Downs. My office hour is on Friday, 1-2 p.m.

TA: Denis Bashkirov, 413 Downs. Denis’s office hour is on Tuesday, 7-9 p.m.

There will be no exams; instead there will be a homework problem set each week. It will be posted on this website Wednesday night or Thursday morning  and will be due a week later. Homework should be given directly to the TA or left in his mailbox. The TA will produce solution sets; you will find them outside of my office. Graded homework will be placed there as well. Grading will be done on the basis of the homework. If you need an extension, you should ask me in advance; without an extension late homework will not be graded.

Grading scheme: each problem is worth 10 pts, unless it is made of subproblems, in which case each subproblem is worth 10 pts. A passing grade is getting 50% of the maximal possible number of points.


Fall quarter HW

Week 1 HW    Notes for week 1   Reading: section 1.1

Week 2 HW   Notes for week 2   Reading: sections 1.3, 1.4, 1.22

Week 3 HW   Reading: sections 1.4, 1.5

Week 4 HW   Reading: sections 1.5, 1.6

Week 5 HW   Reading: sections 1.6, 1.7

Week 6 HW   Reading: sections 1.8, 1.9, 1.10

Week 7 HW   Reading: sections 1.11, 1.13, 1.14

Week 8 HW   Reading: sections 1.14, 1.16, 1.17, 1.18

Week 9 HW  (due Dec. 7)   Reading: sections 1.26, 1.27, 1.28

Week 10: no HW   Reading: sections 1.25, 1.26

Winter quarter HW

Week 1: no HW    Reading: section 22

Week 2 HW     Reading: sections 33, 34, 35, 36.

Week 3 HW     Reading: section 36, 37, 38, 39.

Week 4 HW    Reading: sections 38, 39, 40.

Week 5: no HW  Reading: sections 41, 42, 43, 44.

Week 6 HW    Reading: sections 45, 46, 47, 48.

Week 7 HW    Reading: sections 51, 52.

Week 8 HW   No assigned reading (you may read anyway,  if you feel like it).

Week 9 HW  Reading: sections 53, 54, 55.

Spring quarter HW

Week 1 HW   Reading: sections 56-60, 62.

Week 2 HW   Reading: sections 63, 64, 65, 66.

Week 3 HW   Reading: sections 67, 68, Infrared effects.

Week 4 HW  Reading: sections 69, 70. Also may consult H. Georgi, "Lie algebras and particle physics".

Week 5 HW  Reading: sections 71, 72, 73.

Weeks 6-7 (due May 23)   Reading: section 74.