How I'm Learning Quantum Field Theory

In order to decide which route of nuclear theory I want to go down, I need to up my quantum field theory game. This is the book I'm using to do so.

Link to book pdf:

link to klein gordon derivation:

[SomeGod]

Our boy always out here with the pdfs! You're the best Andrew

[DietterichLabs]

I have created a quantum field theory lecture series of my own (a play list of videos I made on introductory QFT). It covers some of the topics in that table of contents. It is a work in progress, and as a result doesn't cover nearly as much as it should, but what videos are there may be helpful.

[markchadwick]

I just realized the Francis Halzen was my prof for "First Course of Quantum Mechanics" back in 1985! I didn't know at the time who wrote that book.

[dandiculous]

The absolute best self-study QFT book is "Student Friendly Quantum Field Theory" by Robert Klauber. Zee and Lancaster/Blundell are great as reference books, but are not nearly of the same pedagogical value. Klauber never skips a single step in any derivation and so you're left with an incredibly strong foundation for future studies (maybe in the Zee book, for example).

[alighasemi]

The topic of this video was so specific and the conversation so general that watching it did not feel like watching video. It felt like our happy hours in department, and in these quarantine days I missed those kind of conversations. Thanks Andrew

[nikolakispalamidas]

David Tong's notes on QFT are incredible as well as quantum field theory for a gifted amateur as it is very thorough in derivation and links to application, but only briefly touches on QCD.

[graysonkolar]

Hey Andrew, I definitely would enjoy seeing more videos on you explaining different physical phenomena. It seems like it would be good for you in that it will solidify your understanding of material you will be tested on, while for the viewer (or at least for someone who is an undergraduate physics major like me) it's nice to see what kind of challenges and concepts we will be expected to face in the future. Also I'm not sure if you've touched on this in a video in the past, but any helpful information you might be able to provide on what graduate programs are the best and perhaps how to look for them would be amazing. I personally am in my junior year of undergrad, and I don't really know how to determine where to apply to. I want to set high goals for myself, but at the same time I don't want to waste a bunch of money applying for schools that I have a low probability to get into. Thanks for making videos, man! You are helping me through my undergrad experience both through knowledge and through dank memes.

[jussish]

Hi Andrew! Love your videos. I am a physics teacher myself, no PhD (unfortunately... maybe some day) but at least MSc in theoretical physics. I love physics and physics books and own a lot of them (dedicating the rest of my life reading them!). I'm no big expert on QFT, but I would suggest you take a look at two books: 1 Quantum field theory for the gifted amateur by Lancaster and Blundell (does a great job explaining QFT, alas lacking in QCD specifically), and 2 Quantum field theory by Michio Kaku (really technical but explained well, includes a whole bunch of QCD). By the way Halzen and Martin book is very good!

[dinkarsingh]

the books that I have been following are
qft in a nutshell by a zee
qft for amateur physicist by blundell
best books that I've seen so far

[DietterichLabs]

I think the two really classic QFT textbooks are: "Itzykson and Zuber" and "Peskin and Schroder." They are a bit old, though.

[franciscosili]

Hey! I'm finishing my fourth year of university physics (I live in Argentina and we have 5 years of university) and right now I'm taking Quantum Mechanics II, that is, all the applications of QM I, in which we studied all the formalism, algebra and basic problems (H atom, Angular momentum, sum of angular momentum, independent perturbation theory, etc). In QM II we are looking into time dependent perturbation, scattering, atoms and molecules. Right now I am starting to study QFT and QED from "Quantum Field theory and the Standard Model", from Schwartz. I can say that it is a very difficult book, but the main reason is that we hadn't have Relativistic Quantum Mechanics (RQM) and the Second Quantization classes yet, coming up in March. So, in my experience, learning QED and QFT is hell of a difficult task if you don't know quite clearly all the formalism and RQM.
My reccomendation for you is learn all the formalism, algebra and applications first (the most important being RQM, Time dependent perturbation theory and Second quantization) because you'll understand everything quicker.

BTW, love your videos!
Greetings from Argentina

[javierrendon]

That's a really good book. For the very beginner I would suggest David Tong's lecture notes on QFT, and Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur. This in companion with an Introductory Course of Particle Physics from Palash Pal is the bomb. There are also excellente videos on the internet, I recommend particularly Tobias Osborne videos on QFT (2 courses, canonical and path integral formulation).

[immanuelkunt]

I would strongly recommend coleman's lectures. The accompanying lecture notes are really spot on.

[DietterichLabs]

I hadn't heard of that book. I will have to check it out.

[lnhostetler]

I found Mandl and Shaw to be a good introductory text on QFT. It's weak on complicated stuff like QCD, but it's great on the more introductory topics like QED. It makes the transition from regular quantum mechanics easier than a lot of the other textbooks I've seen.

[swinThoughtSeize]

Yay for an introductory video on QFT ! The subject won't be covered at the Master I'm gonna enroll in so I'd definitely enjoy a video (or more ?) on that !

[moshecallen]

My main field is foundational aspects of classical mathematical general relativity and applications to Friedmann cosmology but I actually cut my teeth in experimental particle physics. (I was lucky enough to process data files from Fermilab because my advisor of the time was part of the D0 group when the observation of the top quark for the first time was announced.) The standard text at the time for particle physics was Griffiths. Nowadays that's mostly been replaced by Peskin & Schroeder. Both are good but once you feel up to doing so, I recommend working through the "summaries" put out online by the particle data group. When you can read and understand those, you know your stuff.

[erthx]

@2:17 That's what I did with Kaku's book, some years back, which he claims is three books in one volume. I believe it goes like this, if memory serves. Part 1 the least action principle, Noether theorem, group theory for dummies, K-G eqn, Dirac, quantization of Maxwell, and intro QED. Part 2, path integrals, other covariant methods, renormalization, and intro QCD, part 3, application of stat mech to QFT, solitons monopole instantons (killer chapter, but math editor was an idiot), SUSY, and strings. Whew!

[northernskies]

If you find some of the more formal QFT textbooks hard to understand, I highly recommend No-Nonsense Quantum Field Theory by Jakob Schwichtenberg. I'm reading it right now and it is by far the easiest to understand, and I'm developing a solid grasp of the core concepts from QFT. After I'm done reading this I'll start to get a deeper understanding by reading the more formal QFT textbooks, and I should have the toolbox to understand QFT at a deeper level.

[caE]

I recommend Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur by Tom Lancaster, and David Tong's QFT lecture notes. At least for QFT stuff, but I think representation theory and differential geometry are necessary for seeing the big picture. I'm a graduate student myself, so no expert, but I think it does illuminate the broader picture of theoretical physics, to approaches, and to making connections physically by applying field theories like QCD.

I'm in the same boat, trying to find my path in theory(nuclear theory was my focus), but trying not to get lost in the methodology like a lattice approach vs a perturbative approach. Oh, you might like the notes available through the Imperial College London QFT class, google should get you there.