Quantum Field Theory, Nov 2009 - Jan 2010

Date
Topics discussed
Books followed
03.11.09 Microscopic --> Macroscopic description, universality of low energy excitations. Altland, Simons
12.11.09 Specific heat of insulator, high temperature behaviour from classical microscopic models, continuum description, classical fields, collective excitations. Altland, Simons
14.11.09 Collective excitations again, another look at linear chain, dispersion relation, low momentum limit. Altland, Simons
16.11.09 Quantum chain, quantum fields, second quantisation, quasi-particles. Altland, Simons
17.11.09 Phonons, Specific heat at low temperature. (download home work) Altland, Simons; Ashcroft, Mermin
19.11.09 Maxwell's equations, Action construction from symmetry principles Srednicki
23.11.09 Gauge transformation, gauge invariance, Lorentz and Coulomb gauge. Sakurai, Weinberg
24.11.09 Quantum electrodynamics in Coulomb gauge Sakurai
25.11.09 Photons as quasiparticles Altland, Simons
28.11.09 Casimir Effect, discussion on van der Waal's effect. (download home work) Zee, papers in American J. Physics
01.12.09 Continuous symmetry, Noether's theorem Huang
02.12.09 Conseved currents due to Lorentz invariance. (download home work) Huang
12.12.09 Tutorial (Souvik Banerjee) --
13.12.09 Tutorial (Souvik Banerjee) --
14.12.09 Path integrals in quantum mechanics Shankar
15.12.09 Path integrals -- simple harmonic oscillator. (download home work) Shankar
16.12.09 Path integrals -- connection with stat mech Shankar
17.12.09 Path integrals in field theory -- scalar field. Srednicki
19.12.09 Path integrals in field theory -- scalar field. Srednicki
22.12.09 Tutorial (Souvik Banerjee) --
24.12.09 Tutorial (Souvik Banerjee) --
04.01.10 From field to particle Zee
05.01.10 Generating Functioal Srednicki/Ryder
06.01.10 From free to interacting field Srednicki/Ryder
07.01.10 Interacting field continued, connection to Ising model. (download home work) Srednicki/Ryder, S.K. Ma
11.01.10 Generating functionals for phi-four interaction Ryder
12.01.10 Correlation functions, a hint of mass renormalisation Srednicki/Ryder
13.01.10 Tutorial (Souvik Banerjee) --
14.01.10 First Class: Tutorial (Souvik Banerjee); Second Class: Correlation function continued --; Ryder
19.01.10 Generating function of connected diagrams Ryder/Srednicki
21.01.10 Superficial divergences, dimensional regularisation (Souvik Banerjee) Ryder/Srednicki
25.01.10 Self Energy -- summing up perturbation series. (download home work) Ryder/Srednicki
27.01.10 Landau mean field theory of phase transition Chaikin, Lubensky
28.01.10 Renormalisation (download home work) Ryder/Srednicki
29.01.10 Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation and non-relativistic field theory Halpin-Healy and Zhang first few pages, Zee
10.02.10 Final written exam Open notes



Books, Journal used:

1. Altland,Simons: Condensed matter field theory
2. Ashcroft, Marmin: Instroduction to solid state physics
3. Chaikin, Lubensky: Principles of condensed matter physics
4. Halpin-Healy, Zhang: Physics Reports 254 (1995) 215
5. Huang: Quantum field theory
6. Ryder: Quantum field theory
7. Sakurai: Advanced quantum mechanics
8. Shankar: Principles of quantum mechanics
9. Srednicki: Quantum field theory
10. Weinberg: Gravitation and cosmology
11. Zee: Quantum field theory in a nutshell



Maintained by Sudipta Mukherji
Last Modified: 31.01.2010