Product Description

Quantum field theory is the basic mathematical framework that is used to describe elementary particles. This textbook provides a complete and essential introduction to the subject. Assuming only an undergraduate knowledge of quantum mechanics and special relativity, this book is ideal for graduate students beginning the study of elementary particles. The step-by-step presentation begins with basic concepts illustrated by simple examples, and proceeds through historically important results to thorough treatments of modern topics such as the renormalization group, spinor-helicity methods for quark and gluon scattering, magnetic monopoles, instantons, supersymmetry, and the unification of forces. The book is written in a modular format, with each chapter as self-contained as possible, and with the necessary prerequisite material clearly identified. It is based on a year-long course given by the author and contains extensive problems, with password protected solutions available to lecturers at www.cambridge.org/9780521864497.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48090 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 664 pages

Review
"This accessible and conceptually structured introduction to quantum field theory will be of value not only to beginning students but also to practicing physicists interested in learning or reviewing specific topics. The book is organized in a modular fashion, which makes it easy to extract the basic information relevant to the reader's area(s) of interest. The material is presented in an intuitively clear and informal style. Foundational topics such as path integrals and Lorentz representations are included early in the exposition, as appropriate for a modern course; later material includes a detailed description of the Standard Model and other advanced topics such as instantons, supersymetry, and unification, which are essential knowledge for working particle physicists, but which are not treated in most other field theory texts."
Washington Taylor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Over the years I have used parts of Srednicki's book to teach field theory to physics graduate students not specializing in particle physics. This is a vast subject, with many outstanding textbooks. Among these, Srednicki's stands out for its pedagogy. The subject is built logically, rather than historically. The exposition walks the line between getting the idea across and not shying away from a serious calculation. Path integrals enter early, and renormalization theory is pursued from the very start...By the end of the course the student should understand both beta functions and the Standard Model, and be able to carry through a calculation when a perturbative calculation is called for."
Predrag Cvitanovic, Georgia Institute of Technology

"This book should become a favorite of quantum field theory students and instructors. The approach is systematic and comprehensive, but the friendly and encouraging voice of the author comes through loud and clear to make the subject feel accessible. Many interesting examples are worked out in pedagogical detail."
Ann Nelson, University of Washington

"I expect that this will be the textbook of choice for many quantum field theory courses. The presentation is straightforward and readable, with the author's easy-going 'voice' coming through in his writing. The organization into a large number of short chapters, with the prerequisites for each chapter clearly marked, makes the book flexible and easy to teach from or to read independently. A large and varied collection of special topics is available, depending on the interests of the instructor and the student."
Joseph Polchinski, University of California, Santa Barbara

About the Author
Mark Srednicki is Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He gained his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1977, and received a PhD from Stanford University in 1980. Professor Srednicki has held postdoctoral positions at Princeton University and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Customer Reviews

Classroom Tested, Student Approved
I have been taught field theory from this text (actually, while it was in the process of being written), and then been a teaching assistant for the course in which it was used a second time.

In my experience, this is the best single text to use to learn field theory that one can buy today. It is completely modern in its presentation, and covers all of the fundamentals of field theory from scalars to spinors to gauge theory, and even has a significant amount of coverage of the standard model, specifically the Electro-weak theory. Additionally, the book is broken up into very short chapters of 4-10 pages each, and clearly cross referenced so you know what chapters are prerequisite knowledge.

There are a very large number of exercises which range in difficulty from very straightforward to very difficult. The problems manage to be educational and help deepen the understanding of what's presented in the text while still being a challenge.

This is an extremely well-rounded text. It is easily readable, and provides good intuition about the theory, but also goes far more in depth then the other "easier-to-read" field theory texts out there. It also generally sticks to the most commonly used notation and in situations where new notation is needed, the ones that are used are clear and well thought out. A solid graduate quantum mechanics background is necessary to get the most out of this test, but much of the more advanced math is covered as the book needs it (or reviewed in the exercises).

One down side to being so thorough on the theoretical framework is the lack of any reference to experiment or historical development of field theory. If your goal is to learn field theory only from the experimental side, there are better books out there. But for a solid grounding in the fundamentals of field theory there is no better place to start then this.

Excellent textbook
Srednicki's book provides a brilliantly organized exposition of the fundamental concepts and calculational tools of quantum field theory. The book is self-contained, and divided into many short chapters which makes it convenient to read. The writing style is very pedagogical, essentially avoiding the "black magic" and mystery that seem to be a necessary ingredient in many other QFT textbooks. The material is presented in a logical way, and the author makes sure to address all the necessary details. I won't be surprised if this new book soon becomes the leading book on the subject.

If only this book were available when I was in CalTech Phd program
I was at Caltech 1984-86 in Phd. theoretical physics program and they were still using Bjorken & Drell and then Ramond for the final quarter - I fell behind when we hit chapter 8 renormalization never caught up and to my regret dropped out and became a professional high limit poker player. Every few years I would buy another QFT text - I tried them all (Peskin & Schroeder, Ryder, kaku, Weinberg, Itzykson & Zuber, Hatfield, Zee)- learn a little but still never felt confortable with the subject. Then I discovered Prof. Srednicki's book on the internet and realized this is the book I have been waiting for. The subject is presented logically and coherently from a theorist point of view.

Renormalization, path integrals etc. are all treated from the beginning with a toy phi-cubed theory. What other field theory book actually shows you the double taylor expansion as in 9.11 page 60 and then clearly explains all the symmetry factors and numerical factors that lead to the final feynman diagrams.

The best part of the book is the problems - they are neither trivial nor research projects - so far I have worked almost every problem in part 1 (scalar fields)- and they are all instructive and doable. I particularly liked problem 10.5 on field redefinition - when you solve this one you know you understand the material on feynman diagrams and scattering amplitudes.

The treatment of scalar fields followed by spinor fields and then gauge fields enables one to learn the subject and gain confidence without overwhelming you with all the technical details and indices at once.

The only other book that compares with this one are Weinberg's which I would recommend tackling after Srednicki. I would also recommend Zee's nutshell book for those like myself who read QFT books for fun.