Field Theory For The Non-Physicist (The Modern Physics Series)

Field theory – Why should you learn it? What even are fields? Nearly all of foundational physics is a field theory in some form or another – electromagnetism, general relativity, quantum field theory and many more. Therefore, if you want to understand any of these areas of physics, you will inevitably have to learn field theory at some point. Field theory is certainly not an easy subject, so there are naturally a lot of prerequisites you have to learn first – but not with this book. This book provides you a way to jump right into learning the advanced ideas and applications of field theory, without requiring you to learn a whole bunch of other topics first. That’s the goal here – an accessible resource that gives you a deep dive into the world of foundational modern physics, all in one place. With minimal prerequisites needed from your part, this book will take you step-by-step through the fundamentals, theory, mathematical concepts and advanced applications of field theory. Some interesting topics you’ll learn from this book include: General frameworks for describing relativistic field theories and constructing them Noether’s theorem and how conservation laws arise in field theories Various examples and applications of field theories, such as the Klein-Gordon theory, the Maxwell theory and the Proca theory An introduction to gauge theories and how they affect features of field theories like polarization Interaction theory – how to construct and describe interactions between various fields and particles Various example applications of interaction theory, such as self-interactions, Yukawa interactions and gauge interactions, as well as how to solve the resulting equations with Green’s functions Spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism, the phenomenon by which most elementary particles obtain their mass