Quantum Field Theory, Fall 2022-23

Course Information

Meetings W 14:30-16:00, room 3C13 at UWinnipeg and zoom.
Zoom coordinates for class (if you need to attend remotely) and office hours.

An individual in this class has a medical accommodation requiring that everybody in the class be masked. If you are not prepared to wear a mask in class you should withdraw from this course and select a different course.

Instructor

Dr. Andrew Frey
UWinnipeg 2L26
a dot frey at uwinnipeg dot ca
204 786-9215

Office Hours by appointment on zoom

UManitoba Syllabus
UWinnipeg Course Outline

Texts

Required: Quantum Field Theory by Mark Srednicki (pre-publication version available here; be sure to check the errata on that page)
Supplemental: David Tong's lecture notes
Supplemental: Sidney Coleman's lecture notes
Supplemental: Fields by Warren Siegel

It is very likely that readings from the suggested or other texts will be required or suggested at some point.
Please note: we will use the "mostly plus" version of the Minkowski spacetime metric, but some of these references use "mostly minus." Make sure you pay attention to conventions.

Important Dates

First Lecture: Sept 7, 2022
UW Fall Reading Week: Oct 9-15, 2022 (no class)
UM Fall Reading Week: Nov 6-12, 2022 (no class)
Last Regular Lecture: Dec 7, 2022
Make-Up Lecture: Dec 12, 2022

Reading Schedule

These readings must be done in advance of the indicated course meeting. Upload your questions to the assignment upload link below at least 5 hours before the class meeting. Please use PDF or txt files for your questions, and please name your files with first initial, family name, and reading assignment number (AFrey_reading1.pdf, etc).

*Dates*	*Topic*	*Reading*
7 Sept	Relativistic QM & Lorentz Invariance	Srednicki 1, 2; suggested: Tong 0 for a review
14 Sept	Canonical Quantization	Srednicki 3, Tong §2.3-5 (§2.1,2,6 suggested)
21 Sept	Path Integral Formulation	Srednicki chapters 6, 7, & 8; Suggested Tong §2.7
28 Sept	Feynman Rules from Path Integrals	Srednicki chapter 9
5 Oct	LSZ Formula & Scattering Amplitudes	Srednicki Chapters 5 & 10, Notes on Diagrams
19 Oct	Cross-Sections & Decays	Srednicki §11-12; Suggested review: Siegel §V.C.1-4,7; Tong §3.3-6; Coleman §8-9
26 Oct	Propagator Loop Corrections	Srednicki §14
2 Nov	Vertex Loop Corrections & Renormalizability	Srednicki §16-20 (focus on 16-18)
16 Nov	Effective Action, Resonances, & IR	Srednicki §21,25,26
23 Nov	Renormalization	Srednicki §27,28
30 Nov	Wilsonian Renormalization	Srednicki §29
7 Dec	Symmetries	Srednicki §22,24
12 Dec	Broken Symmetries	Srednicki §30-32

Homework Assignments

Policies

Please see the syllabus/course outline for official homework policies. The following are guidelines:

Assignments will only be posted on this web page; you must let me know if you need alternate delivery.
Assignments will be posted Thurs and are typically due the next Thurs. Assignments are due by 10:59PM on the listed due date. Make sure to label your assignment with your name.
You will give a short presentation of one problem at the class meeting before the assignment is due. The presentation and submission of reading questions in advance of the class count toward your participation grade for the week. We will make alternate arrangements in case of a necessary absence.
Upload homeworks and reading questions to this link.
Assignments must be submitted as PDF files. These may be black-and-white scans or photographs of hardcopies (all converted to PDF), PDF prepared by LaTeX, or PDF prepared with a word processor using an equation editor.
Include your name on your assignment. Name your files with first initial, last name, and assignment number. If you need multiple files, label them in order with lower case letters. Example: AFrey_hw1.pdf or AFrey_hw1a.pdf, AFrey_hw1b.pdf, etc. For reading assignments, you may upload either a text file or PDF and label with name and date: AFrey_reading_7sept.pdf, AFrey_reading_7sept.txt, etc.
Collaboration is allowed, but you must write up your own solutions independently (in your own words).
Late assignments will only be accepted with prior permission from the instructor.
Assignments that are not neatly organized and written will receive zero credit (one warning allowed).
If you find a mistake in grading, please talk to Dr Frey.

Homework Sets

Solutions removed for security purposes

Assignment 1 due 15 Sept Presentations: (1) Zunaira (2) Bardh (3) Phil (4) Naman
Assignment 2 due 22 Sep
Presentations: (1) Bardh (2) Phil (3) Naman (4) Zunaira
Assignment 3 due 29 Sept
Presentations: (1) Phil (2) Bardh (3 first part) Zunaira (3 second part) Naman
Assignment 4 due 6 Oct
Presentations: (1) Bardh (2) Naman (3) Zunaira (4) Phil
Assignment 5 due 20 Oct
Presentations: (1) Naman (2) Phil (3) Zunaira (4) Bardh
Assignment 6 due 27 Oct
Presentations: (1) Zunaira (2) Bardh (3) Phil (4) Naman
Assignment 7 due 3 Nov
Presentations: (1) Phil (2) Naman (3) Bardh (4) Zunaira
Assignment 8 due 17 Nov
Presentations: (1) Naman (2) Bardh (3) Phil (4) Zunaira
Assignment 9 due 24 Nov
Presentations: (1) Zunaira (2) Bardh (3) Naman (4) Phil
Assignment 10 due 1 Dec
Presentations: (1a) Bardh (1b) Phil (2a) Zunaira (2b) Naman
Assignment 11 due 8 Dec
Presentations: (1) Phil (2) Bardh (3) Zunaira (4) Naman

Last updated: 31 Aug 2023, 22:23