Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model 1st Edition by Matthew D. Schwartz | (PDF) Free Download

Description

Providing a comprehensive introduction to quantum field theory, this textbook covers the development of particle physics from its foundations to the discovery of the Higgs boson. Its combination of clear physical explanations, with direct connections to experimental data, and mathematical rigor make the subject accessible to students with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. Assuming only an undergraduate-level understanding of quantum mechanics, the book steadily develops the Standard Model and state-of-the art calculation techniques. It includes multiple derivations of many important results, with modern methods such as effective field theory and the renormalization group playing a prominent role. Numerous worked examples and end-of-chapter problems enable students to reproduce classic results and to master quantum field theory as it is used today. Based on a course taught by the author over many years, this book is ideal for an introductory to advanced quantum field theory sequence or for independent study.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “This is an excellent graduate-level relativistic quantum field theory text, covering an impressive amount of material often with a very novel presentation. It would be ideal either for courses on relativistic quantum field theory or for courses on the Standard Model of elementary particle interactions. The book provides interesting insights and covers many modern topics not usually presented in current texts such as spinor-helicity methods and on-shell recursion relations, heavy quark effective theory and soft-collinear effective field theory. It is nice to see the modern point of view on the predictive power of non-renormalizable theories discussed. Once in a generation particle physicists elevate a quantum field theory text to the rank of classic. Two such classics are the texts by Bjorken and Drell and Peskin and Schroeder; it wouldn’t surprise me if this new book by Schwartz joins this illustrious group.” Mark Wise, California Institute of Technology”A wonderful tour of quantum field theory from the modern perspective, filled with insights on both the conceptual underpinnings and the concrete, elegant calculational tools of the subject.” Nima Arkani-Hamed, Institute for Advanced Study, PrincetonMatthew Schwartz has produced a new and valuable introduction to quantum field theory. He has rethought the whole presentation of the subject, from the introductory and foundational concepts to new developments such as effective field theory descriptions of quark dynamics. Students will enjoy viewing quantum field theory from his perspective.” Michael E. Peskin, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory”Schwartz’s book grew out of a popular year long course in quantum field theory at Harvard. Designed primarily for graduate students, this course also attracts and inspires a number of undergraduates each year. The book is unique in its combination of breadth, depth and readability. Schwartz starts at the beginning of the subject and brings us right up to the present. That the book is neither superficial nor impossibly dense is rather remarkable and makes it easy to understand the course’s success.” Howard Georgi, Harvard University”In this book, Schwartz gives a thoughtful and modern treatment of many classical and contemporary topics. Students and experienced researchers will find much here of value.” Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Book Description A modern introduction to quantum field theory for graduates, providing intuitive, physical explanations supported by real-world applications and homework problems. About the Author Matthew D. Schwartz is a Professor of Physics at Harvard University. He is one of the world’s leading experts on quantum field theory and its applications to the Standard Model. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Short version: overall, this is the best QFT textbook available right now. It succeeds in covering a lot of ground without sacrificing accessibility. It is up to date and has some great exercises. It is also rare in that many derivations are worked out explicitly. If you are (relatively) new to the subject and want to start learning QFT, this book is probably your best bet.Longer version:About the author: Matt Schwartz is a professor at Harvard, where he has taught a very popular introductory QFT course several times over the last few years. The first half of the book (Parts I through III) arose from lecture notes that he prepared for the class, and whose contents have therefore been thoroughly student-tested (full disclosure: I was one of the students who pored over every equation in those notes). The result is the most pedagogical introduction to QFT to date. With the new material in Parts IV and V, it presents all the topics covered in an intensive year-long course.The exercises at the end of every chapter have also been student-tested and are for the most part very illuminating: you’ll be asked to perform illustrative calculations (the bread and butter of the subject), to explicitly derive relations from the chapter (to test your understanding) or to get some extra practice by expounding on some side topic. Either way, these exercises are a valuable resource and provide additional insight into the material (though beware: in the later chapters, some problems can be fiendishly difficult). Remember: as with any advanced subject, it is crucial that you work through some of the details on your own!The strength of the presentation lies in the author’s style: Matt Schwartz is not afraid to walk you through derivations step by step and point out common misunderstandings. As a result the book often adopts a chatty style, more akin to a teacher talking to his students than to a dry and terse summary. At 900 pages, it is therefore longer than its competition, but for beginners I see this as a feature rather than a bug!Some other great features: the book does not assume much in the way of prerequisites (aside from quantum mechanics and special relativity) and even includes a chapter on classical field theory. The explanation of Feynman diagrams is really clear and many examples are provided (the diagrams are numerous and beautifully typeset). The author introduces QED gradually by working his way through scalar QED first, which allows him to focus on some important points without the complications of spinors. Below are some comparisons to similar books out there:- Peskin & Schroder: the standard QFT textbook (up to now!). The chapters are quite uneven in quality: though some are excellently written (e.g. the discussion on non-abelian gauge theory), others are quite obscure. The going is especially rough in the beginning: for instance, I remember trying to understand the discussion of LSZ in P&S and being completely lost before turning to Matt Schwartz’s much clearer explanation.Some discussions in P&S have also become somewhat dated, while Schwartz’ book is completely up to date. It even includes a chapter on the spinor helicity formalism, the framework in which the recent work on scattering amplitudes is couched!- A. Zee’s QFT in a Nutshell: this is another favorite of mine, and a great read once you’ve learned the basics of the subject and are looking for a different viewpoint. It’s also useful for beginners who want to get to know the lay of the land. While this book offers good insights into the subject, it only works through a single computation in detail! A good companion to Schwartz’s book, then, but not a viable alternative.- Tom Banks’s book: a very concise overview of the subject, but definitely inaccessible to beginners. Banks uses the Schwinger-Dyson equation from the start, but never really explains it. Head over to Chapter 14 of Matt Schwartz’s book to learn about it before even thinking about attacking Banks.- Mark Srednicki’s book: this book starts at a higher level of abstraction and is great for a second look at QFT. Schwartz’s book is definitely better suited to the novice, however, as it offers a gentler introduction and is more hands on in its approach.- Weinberg’s 3 volumes: notoriously difficult to learn from, but still *the* reference for certain topics. Volume 1, in particular, does the best job of explaining the structure of QFT and why most of it was inevitable. Again, not the place to learn how to compute from, but a pleasure to read after having absorbed Schwartz’s treatment.In summary, there are now quite a few QFT books available on the market, each with their own niche. Matt Schwartz’ book offers the best compromise in terms of accessibility vs completeness, and should therefore have the widest appeal.

⭐I was always interested in learning QFT but none of the available books (P&S, Srednicki, Zee’s Nutshell) could offer me a clear understanding of the logic and reasoning behind QFT’s esoteric formalism. That all changed after taking on Matthew Schwartz’s book. There is so much to tell about this marvelous book, therefore I have thematically split my review into 5 sections below.Style of presentation: This is by far the most *congenial* (not for a lack of adjective) physics book I have taken on so far! The book adopts a refreshingly friendly and colloquial writing style (much like a tutor), calling out the big picture and emphasizing the important points in every discussion. It not only explains how the theory should work, but also how it should not, by pointing out the possible naive interpretations that a novice might make; Along the same line, the author keeps comparing the new topics with previous ones, in a non-repetitive way, each time shedding more light from a different angle, which helps bolster the core ideas in the reader’s mind without overwhelming him/her, allowing the reader to make some profound conceptual connections.Intuition and depth: This is the most intuitive QFT book I have seen. Ideas that previously were merely mathematical equations became commonsense after being exposed to this book. Matthew Schwartz transcends the math beyond what is offered by the classic references in the field by adding his well-worded intuition, targeted at a graduate student. Just as a few examples from the first quarter of the book, the meanings of the commutation relations between the fields and their derivatives are beautifully tied to causality, the LSZ formula is demystified by making it responsible for generating the initial and final states, the essence of QFT interactions is concisely (and yet fully) presented (in only a few pages) through the Lagrangian derivation of the Feynman rules, prior to presenting the messier, yet more systematic Hamiltonian formulation, the guage-invariance and Ward identity are discussed in great depth through various illustrative examples, the discussion of various representations of the Lorentz and Poincare groups are quite unique, thanks to providing topological pictures and realistic numerical examples after building the math machinery, etc.Breadth: The multitude of topics covered is extensive, ranging from QFT and QED, to a complete treatment of the Standard Model, QCD and advanced topics such as background fields, heavy-quark physics, jets and effective theory. Moreover, each idea is presented/formulated through various approaches/methods, e.g. Feynman rules are derived in space mode and momentum mode using both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian approaches.Level, rigor, and notation: Without a doubt, this book (and frankly the whole subject) is intended to be taken up by a physics graduate student, although a talented senior undergraduate should also find the book useful. As for the mathematical rigor, I would describe it as “just enough”, for a physics book. As far as notation, the author has been very careful not to confuse the reader by using excessive/abstruse notations; the author uses the modern conventions (first print is in 2014) and all the notations are clarified upon introduction.Necessary background: In order to really appreciate the book the reader should have a solid background in Quantum mechanics (Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations, spin, scattering, etc) and know the basics of Special theory of relativity, Electrodynamics, matrix algebra, multivariable calculus, and Complex integrals.As a final note, I should mention that the book has its own website, with a newly launched Forum section, where the author graciously answers readers’ questions.Overall I really enjoy reading this book and highly recommend it.

⭐I agree with many of the other reviewers that this book sets a new standard in QFT.The presentation is original and does not really follow the (historically based) progression of initially focussing on Klein-Gordon, followed by Dirac, followed by QED. The influence of Coleman is much in evidence here – for example, gauge fields are introduced (before spinors fields) as a consequence of the symmetry of the Poincare group, which may not be the most straightforward introduction.As the author states in the preface, this is a physics book, rather than a maths book, and the theory is not developed as a mathematical derivation (in contrast to, for example, Srednicki). Things are explained in a surprisingly “wordy” way, but the author has gone to a lot of trouble to explain things clearly, concisely and thoroughly – a great achievement. However, this is not an easy text on the level of Ryder or some of the more recent student friendly texts and could also be used as a reference for practitioners.If I was learning QFT from scratch again I would start off with the new Lancaster book and then aim to progress to this one. I still think that Peskin, Srednicki and Zee and great texts, but this stands above them all.

⭐Appeared to be water damage fastening pages together. Careful prising apart meant all pages were legible. So no need to return it. £20 cheaper.

⭐It is a great book although it starts from very basic topics and sometimes jumps to advanced ones leaving some gaps. The upper and lower indices convention could be better as well. Even so, it is one of the more complete QFT books I have ever seen, but it probably requires some previous experience whithin the area for the student to be able to effectively learn from it.

⭐Paper quality is ordinary and hard binder is not glued well.(I have stuck it back with fevicol, it’s ok now)Rating is not for the content in the book.

⭐Wow!! I love this book even though it’s killing me. As a physics post-grad I bought this book not knowing anything about it but encouraged by the enthusiastic write-ups and reviews it attracted and my desire to get to grips with the modern approach to QFT (better than I did as a grad student, albeit 15 or so years ago). But I’m afraid this is just like all the other physics books I know – highly phenomenological in spirit with little interest in underlying principles. This comes out most clearly when discussing/treating fields; they are regarded as objects to be manipulated according to seemingly arbitraray rules chosen according to the problem in hand – for example sometimes as physical objects and at other times as mathematical models. There is always, of course, a tenuous link to experiment.The best treatment I have seen of this “problem” is the article on QFT in WikiDespite my remarks above, I’m very glad I bought this book which I shall continue to work hard at

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