An Introduction To Quantum Field Theory

Peskin and Schroeder's book seems to be the standard text for courses in quantum field theory these days. Although somewhat intimidating for the novice, the reader seasoned by reading a good portion of Ryder's book Quantum Field Theory will find himself fairly comfortable. The advantages of the compact (1, sigma) notation used by the authors for Dirac spinors and gamma matrices, although not as immediately transparent as the expressions favored by Ryder, soon become familiar. The use of a more compact notion gives more space for narrative exposition. One discussion that I found particularly helpful in P&S is the explanation for the sign of time dependence for the field operator psi(x) on p.54 using equations (3.91) and (3.92). Because psi(x) is an operator and not a simple wave function, we have to switch to the Heisenberg picture in order for it to have time dependence. In the Heisenberg picture the annihilation operator has time dependence a(p)exp(-iE(p)t). It is then clear that the annihilation side of psi(x) must be proportional to a(p)exp(-p.x), since p.x=(Et-P.r) using Ryder's choice of metric and space time coordinates (with P as the three momentum, r as the three position [x,y,z], and E as the energy). Perhaps this seems like a minor point, but the choice of sign for the exponential in a(p)exp(-p.x) seemed to me to be purely arbitrary before reading this section in P&S. As you might expect, however, some points that should either be given greater emphasis--or explained in more detail are sometimes glossed over. Happily, a good supplement for this text exists in the lecture notes of Cambridge University's David Tong. Tong's notes provide a better understanding of the ideas behind the rotation of the contour slightly away from the real axis (p.95) in order to insure that the integral for the propagator converges. Tong also adds to the authors' discussion of normal ordering and Wick's Theorem. Peskin and Schroeder also provide a very readable discussion of the Higg's model in Chapter 20. Reading this chapter has given me the best appreciation for QFT that I have gleaned thus far.

Wonderful book, good price.

I give this book 5 stars only because it is the best book available if you want to study the real thing in QFT. It is so much more readable than its predecessors it's amazing. That being said you must be ready for this book by having studied quantum mechanics at the level of Sakurai and you probably need to frequently revisit it. You must read this book with pencil and paper in hand to get anything out of it. Sometimes a line or two in Peskin is three or four pages of manipulation. You have to work it out to learn the math skills to absorb the material. QFT is not a spectator sport. Zee's book is a good introduction, I wished I had read it first but for the real thing in QFT you will need this book.

This is the ideal book to use a basis for learning QFT. That isn't to say that it's the only book that you'll need or that it can replace a course on QFT, but the good thing about the book is that it shows you how to actually calculate things. So my way of using this book is to go try to do a calculation until I run into an idea that the book does not explain well. At this point, I turn to some other book for more details. Quite a few times, the other books are not necessarily books on QFT. Ideally you want to be in a short course on QFT that shows you what the ideas in QFT are so that you can go crazy, compute a scattering amplitude and learn the details of the tricks involved in the calculations from a text. Which brings me to the the topic of backup texts to help understand things that this text does not treat well. A great set of supplementary notes for understanding the ideas involved in QFT are David Tong's 'Lectures on Quantum Field Theory' ([...]) that are freely available on the net. Unfortunately, they don't go very far but another great set of notes are Michael Luke's version of Sidney Coleman's 'QFT Lecture Notes' ([...]) that are also freely available on the net. A good text for more basic QFT stuff is Franz Gross' 'Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Field Theory' (http://www.amazon.com/Relativistic-Quantum-Mechanics-science-paperback/dp/0471353868/). Gross' book assumes less knowledge on the part of the student and spends a lot of time on the EM field and the K-G and Dirac equations. A good supplement for (mostly) classical fields and gauges is 'Geometry, Particles and Fields' by Bjorn Felsager (http://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Particles-Graduate-Contemporary-Physics/dp/0387982671/). At a much more elementary level is Davison Soper's 'Classical Field Theory' (http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Field-Theory-Dover-Physics/dp/0486462609/). Special relativity and electrodynamics are covered well by Asim Barut's 'Electrodynamics and Classical Theory of Fields and Particles' (http://www.amazon.com/Electrodynamics-Classical-Theory-Fields-Particles/dp/0486640388/). A good book for a more laid back, overviewing, historical, pedagogical and well-written view of QFT is Steven Weinberg's 'The Quantum Theory of Fields: Vol I, II & III' (http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Theory-Fields-Foundations/dp/0521670535/), although, like most texts written by Weinberg, it's great and scholarly for people who already know some QFT but probably not a good text for someone seeing it all for the first time. Finally, mention must be made of the excellent, but sadly out of print, text on QED by Josef Jauch and Fred Rohrlich 'The Theory of Photons and Electrons' (http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Photons-Electrons-Relativistic-Mathematical/dp/3540072950/). Jauch and Rohrlich cover most of QED but none of the developments involving the Weak or Strong Force because they were not understood at all the time of the publication of the first edition of the book (1955). An update in 1976 included more QED but the death of Josef Jauch prevented it from becoming a full-blown QFT text. In conclusion, you'll probably wannt Peskin and Schroeder as a sort of 'hammer, saw and screwdriver' text (a carpenter's basic tools are hammers, saws and screwdrivers) but you'll need to go grab other tools every now and then.

Peskin and Schroeder's textbook is the standard textbook for quantum field theory courses for a reason. Although it may be a little intimidating for beginners, it covers an almost unmatched breadth and depth of material extremely well, and also teaches actual calculation very well.

First, this book includes a lot of material and that is why it is considered as textbook for QFT courses in most universities worldwide. Second, these authors makes a pretty good job introducing topics slowly and in a right sequence. I have heard that students say that this book is hard... Of course this book is hard!!! But if you have already taken one or two courses of QFT, you will be able to go through this book without much suffering. I strongly recommend you this book.

Very happy to have this well written source from such an expert in the field.

I understand that writing a textbook for Quantum Field Theory is a very difficult task but I feel that Peskin and Schroeder didn't write a textbook but rather an extensive publication on QFT topics. What I mean is that reading this book feels like you are going through a professional paper which is good if you are a researcher but not good if you are a student. As a student you need to get all the steps needed for a calculation, and the reasons why you are taking those steps. You need to gain confidence from the book, not disappointment because you cannot understand how and why something "can be easily shown". This book is like a discussion of QFT for people who already mastered QFT not for beginners. I would prefer a book with half the material of this book but with thorough explanation of the other half. Sorry but I cannot give anything more than 2/5. I have to say that I used this book for 2 semesters of QFT, QFT I and II that I took in grad school and in both classes I got an A, by using classes notes, Sakurai's Advanced Quantum Mechanics, Griffiths Elementary Particles, a book in tensor algebra and a little bit of this book.

Very good pages with clear texts, Excellent hardcover binding

Es un libro didáctico y profundo aunque sea de introducción. Trata en profundidad la te normalización con todos sus problemas y soluciones. En profundidad las integrales de camino e integrales funcionales. En profundidad las teorías gauges, electrodinámica cuántica… le falta cromodinámica en profundidad porque eso requerirá otro texto aparte, lógicamente. Muy buen libro para profundizar luego en textos o revistas mas técnicas. Muchas deducciones paso a paso. No vienen ejemplos resueltos. Sí propuestos. Es un libro para tener en una biblioteca propia

It's Peskin & Schroeder, plain and simple. It's the standard book and it's the standard book for a reason.

und das Buch ist immer noch DAS Standard-Nachschlagewerk auf meinem Schreibtisch. Sowas nenne ich mal eine lohnende Investition :-) Als ich es neu gekauft hatte, studierte ich noch und war gerade bei der Vorlesung zur relativistischen Quantenmechanik angelangt. Damals habe ich das Buch als sehr schwere Kost empfunden - als Einsteigerlehrbuch ist es also nicht ideal, da gibt es bessere! Aber so muehsam die Lektuere war, so sehr hat mich das Buch fasziniert, der Informationsgehalt ist einfach unglaublich. Kein Wunder, dass dieses Buch eins der absoluten Standardwerke auf dem Schreibtisch eines jeden Teilchenphysikers ist.

The book was in a good state but the most important thing was the content, the understanding from the basic understanding of Feyman Diagrams, Loop integrals and the mathematics behind canonical quantization was given in a way that any person with the enough basis can understand and solve the exercises that the books has. Without doubt a really good book for an introduction to Quantum Field Theory.