Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

Overview

This is the third and last term of the quantum field theory sequence. A bare enumeration follows:

Concepts

• Gauge symmetry and its spontaneous breaking
• Confinement
• Renormalization
• Asymptotic freedom
• Anomalies
• Instantons
• Zero modes

Specific Structure

• Gauge boson and Higgs spectrum
• Fermion multiplets
• CKM matrix
• Unification in SU(5) and SO(10)

Frontiers

• Phenomenology of Higgs sector
• Lepton and baryon number violation
• Nonperturbative (lattice) formulation and associated algorithms

Prerequisites

8.323 (Relativistic Quantum Field Theory I) and 8.324 (Relativistic Quantum Field Theory II)

Recommended Readings

Peskin, M., and D. Schroeder. An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1 June 1995. ISBN: 9780201503975.

Cheng, Ta-Pei, and Ling-Fong Li. Gauge Theory of Elementary Particle Physics. Clarendon: Oxford University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780198519560.

———. Gauge Theory of Elementary Particle Physics: Problems and Solutions. 1st ed. UK: Oxford University Press, 1 May 2000. ISBN: 9780198506218.

Aitchison, I., and A. Hey. Gauge Theories in Particle Physics. UK: Oxford University Press, 1 September 1988. ISBN: 9780198519614.

Ellis, R., W. Stirling, and B. Webber. QCD and Collider Physics. Cambridge University Press, 24 October 1996. ISBN: 9780521581899.

Grading

The grade for this course is based entirely on the problem sets.