Quantum field theory, Lecture 14

This winter semester (2016-2017) I am giving a course on quantum field theory. This course is intended for theorists with familiarity with advanced quantum mechanics and statistical physics. The main objective is introduce the building blocks of quantum electrodynamics.

Here in Lecture 14 we begin the discussion of the Dirac field.

[StatelessLiberty]

Prof. Osborne, you refer to wanting to construct projective unitary representations of the Poincare group and want to exclude "trivial representations." I take trivial to mean the representation that sends everything to the identity. But a representation may be non-trivial but also not "faithful" as in the collection of unitary operators you have constructed is not isomorphic to the Poincare group. Do you want to allow this or do you want only faithful representations?

[a.s.]

A well-guided journey into Dirac's mind!

[prasadpawar]

28:08 Shouldn't both the terms in the diagonal be −σ 1σ 2 and same but in opposite order for 2nd term?

[kamaellewis]

isn't gamma^0 diag(1, 1, -1, -1)? are there two versions of gamma 0?

[aeroscience]

I believe you did make a factor of 2 mistake, since otherwise say {gamma3, gamma3} = 2 is violated

[totam]

Please prof, l do not understand the meaning classical fermionic field or building classical field theory for it ; I mean that the spin is a quantum mechanically phenomenon