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: L.H. Ryder, Quantum Field Theory (2nd ed.),
Cambridge University Press.
Recommended: M.E. Peskin and D.V. Schroeder, An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory. Westview Press.
Note: the book by Peskin and Schroder is more thorough and contains more applications, but Ryder is more pedagogical.

Online resources
I strongly recommend lectures by Sidney Coleman which can be found here.   They are both thorough and pedagogical; a generation of theoretical particle physicists has learned from them. The only drawback is that the path-integral formalism is not covered.

Rough Syllabus
Fall quarter: second quantization, classical field theory, relativistic wave equations (Klein-Gordon, Dirac, Maxwell) and quantization of free fields,
gauge-invariance, the Coulomb problem for the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations, Casimir effect.

Winter quarter: S-matrix, perturbation theory and Feynman diagrams, path-integrals, QED.

Spring quarter: Renormalization of the scalar field theory and QED, Ward identities, renormalization group, infrared divergences, basic Yang-Mills theory.

My office is 451 Lauritsen. My office hour is on Monday,
3-4 p.m.

TA: Jeff Atwell, 471 Lauritsen.

There will be no exams; instead there will be a homework problem set each week. It will be posted on this website each Wednesday 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.

Fall quarter

Week 1 (due October 5)    Week 2 (due October 12)    Week 3 (due October 19)   Week 4 (due October 26)  Week 5 (due November 2)

Week 6 (due November 9)   Week 7 (due November 16)   Week 8 (due November 23)


Winter quarter

Week 1 - no hw    Week 2 (due Jan. 18)    Week 3 - no hw    Week 4 (due Feb. 1)   Week 5 (due Feb. 8)

 Week 6 (due Feb. 15)    Week 7 (due Feb. 22)   Week 8 (due March 1)   Week 9 (due March 8)   Week 10 (due March 15)


I was asked to advertise a course on QCD to be taught in the spring quarter by Michael Ramsey-Musolf. The course number is Ph 210, and the
syllabus can be found here.


Spring quarter

Week 1 - no hw    Week 2 (due April 12)   Week 3 (due April 19)   Week 4 (due April 26)    Week 5 (due May 3)

Week 6  (due May 10)   Week 7 (due May 17)   Week 8 (due May 24)    Week 9 - no hw