6 EC
Semester 2, period 4
5354AQFT6Y
| Owner | Master Physics and Astronomy (joint degree) |
| Coordinator | Diego Hofman |
| Part of | Master Physics and Astronomy, track Theoretical Physics, year 1 |
Topics and format
This is an advanced course in Quantum Field Theory. The idea is to discuss some advanced topics that are cool and fun. You can think of the QFT course as one where systematics are discussed and the Particles and Fields course as a course on how to apply this technology to the real world. This course is not about that. It is a about what QFT really is. It will be more conceptual and focussed on deep issues in QFT. Because of that the course will be a bit informal. You should think of this course as a 6 EC extension course. I will try to emphasize concepts and not doing the same calculation ten times over and over again. This comes at a cost. You will be expected to be hungry for knowledge and think of the problems.
There is another reason to teach this course. It is important for many people to know CFT2 technology. Both condensed matter and string theory people need to know these topics inside out. So one large chunk of this course will be about that.
This course is divided in 3 parts: QFT and Renonormalization, Conformal Field Theory in d>2, Conformal Field Theory in d=2.
The fi rst and last part make the bulk of the course, while the intermediate part is meant to be a transition to facilitate the smooth interpolation between the other two. If we had in nite time, we would also have a fourth part on Non-Perturbative aspects. In particular: anomalies, solitons, instantons and topology. But in the past this has notbeen possible.
Find below a detailed list of topics that will be covered and the number of lectures I expect to dedicate to each topic. This is just a plan and subject to change.
Part1: QFT and Renormalization (8)
a. Path integrals, traces, functional determinants and zeta function regularization (1.5)
b. Generating functionals, e ffective actions and divergences (1)
c. Ward identities and symmetries( 0.5 )
d. Renormalization group (5):
I. Coleman-Weinberg 1-loop e ffective potential ( 0.5 )
II. Symmetry breaking, Goldston, Mermin-Wagner-Coleman (0.5 )
III. Renormalization in Quantum Mechanics (1)
IV. Wilsoninan RG (1)
V. Counter term renormalization (1)
VI. Beta functions and anomalous dimensions (1)
Part 2: Conformal Field Theory in d > 2 (2)
a. Fixed points and Wilson-Fisher (0.5)
b. Scale, conformal and Weyl invariance (0.5)
c. Radial quantization (1)
Part 3: Conformal Field Theory in d = 2 (4)
a. CFT2 basics: Virasoro, primary fields, OPEs, etc. (2)
b. Free boson (0.5)
c. Minimal models (0.5)
d. Modular invariance and Cardy formula (1)
Literature
The literature on the topic is infi nite and I won't follow a single reference. Since we will be jumping from topic to topic you might want to change references depending on the topic. Google will be your friend.
Still, let me give a (non exhaustive) list of some interesting references in no particular order:
a. Zinn-Justin, Quantum Field Theory and Critical Phenomena.
b. Coleman, Aspects of Symmetry.
c. Peskin and Schroeder, An introduction to Quantum Field Theory
d. Zee, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell
e. Polyakov, Gauge Fields and Strings
f. Di Francesco, Mathieu and Senechal, Conformal Field Theory
g. Lust and Theisen, Lectures on String Theory
h. Blumenhagen and Plauschinn, Introduction to Conformal Field Theory
Also by googling I found a few lectures online that I found interesting. You are encouraged to look for more!
a. Lectures by McGreevy
b. Lectures by Scrucca
c. Lectures by Cardy
d. Lectures by Ginsparg
e. Lectures by Schellekens
The main objective of this course is to describe the physical meaning and implications of the renormalization group flow. Special attention will be given to conformal fixed points in d dimensions with particular emphasis to the two dimensional case. At the end of the course the student will be comfortable using path integral and operator techniques to understand the physics of critical theories.
Will be announced.
Activity | Number of hours |
Hoorcollege | 28 |
Werkcollege | 28 |
Zelfstudie | 112 |
The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).
Additional requirements for this course:
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade | |
|
60% Final (take home) exam | Must be ≥ 5 |
|
40% Weekly homework (problem sets) |
Evaluation
The course evaluation consists on two parts: 1) A final (take home) exam that will take place on the week of March 27th. It accounts for 60% of the total grade. A minimum grade of 5/10 is needed in the fi nal exam to pass the course. 2) There will also be weekly homework that accounts for 40% plus a 8% bonus. A minimum grade of 5.5/10 in the (weighted) averaged final grade (exam+homework) is required to pass the final exam.
There will be homework sets every week. Of all the problems some will be marked with a *. That means you are expected to hand that in. Typically those problems will be on the hard side. That means you have to do the other problems too to figure out what is going on.
There are 7 weeks in the course. Therefore I expect to give out 7 problem sets. Ofthose, you are expected to hand in 6. This means that if you have any problem whatsoever on any week, you can skip that one.
On top of that, problem sets are expected to account for 40% of the grade, but each problem set is 8% of the grade, so there is a 8% bonus.
Onderstaande opdrachten komen aan bod in deze cursus:
Dit vak hanteert de algemene ‘Fraude- en plagiaatregeling’ van de UvA. Onder plagiaat of fraude wordt verstaan het overschrijven van het werk van een medestudent dan wel het kopiëren van wetenschappelijke bronnen (uit bijvoorbeeld boeken en tijdschriften en van het Internet) zonder daarbij de bron te vermelden. Uiteraard is plagiaat verboden. Hier wordt nauwkeurig op gecontroleerd en streng tegen opgetreden. Bij verdenking van plagiaat wordt de examencommissie van de opleiding ingeschakeld. Wanneer de examencommissie overtuigd is dat er plagiaat gepleegd is dan kan dit maximaal leiden tot een uitsluiting van al het onderwijs van de opleiding voor een heel kalenderjaar. Zie voor meer
informatie over het fraude- en plagiaatreglement van de Universiteit van Amsterdam.www.uva.nl/plagiaat
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