Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model 1st Edition

by Matthew D. Schwartz (Author)

168 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1107034730

ISBN-10: 1107034736

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Providing a comprehensive introduction to quantum field theory, this textbook covers the development of particle physics from its foundations to the discovery of the Higgs boson. Its combination of clear physical explanations, with direct connections to experimental data, and mathematical rigor make the subject accessible to students with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. Assuming only an undergraduate-level understanding of quantum mechanics, the book steadily develops the Standard Model and state-of-the art calculation techniques. It includes multiple derivations of many important results, with modern methods such as effective field theory and the renormalization group playing a prominent role. Numerous worked examples and end-of-chapter problems enable students to reproduce classic results and to master quantum field theory as it is used today. Based on a course taught by the author over many years, this book is ideal for an introductory to advanced quantum field theory sequence or for independent study.

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by Matthew D. Schwartz Hardcover
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an excellent graduate-level relativistic quantum field theory text, covering an impressive amount of material often with a very novel presentation. It would be ideal either for courses on relativistic quantum field theory or for courses on the Standard Model of elementary particle interactions. The book provides interesting insights and covers many modern topics not usually presented in current texts such as spinor-helicity methods and on-shell recursion relations, heavy quark effective theory and soft-collinear effective field theory. It is nice to see the modern point of view on the predictive power of non-renormalizable theories discussed. Once in a generation particle physicists elevate a quantum field theory text to the rank of classic. Two such classics are the texts by Bjorken and Drell and Peskin and Schroeder; it wouldn't surprise me if this new book by Schwartz joins this illustrious group."
Mark Wise, California Institute of Technology

"A wonderful tour of quantum field theory from the modern perspective, filled with insights on both the conceptual underpinnings and the concrete, elegant calculational tools of the subject."
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Matthew Schwartz has produced a new and valuable introduction to quantum field theory. He has rethought the whole presentation of the subject, from the introductory and foundational concepts to new developments such as effective field theory descriptions of quark dynamics. Students will enjoy viewing quantum field theory from his perspective."
Michael E. Peskin, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

"Schwartz's book grew out of a popular year long course in quantum field theory at Harvard. Designed primarily for graduate students, this course also attracts and inspires a number of undergraduates each year. The book is unique in its combination of breadth, depth and readability. Schwartz starts at the beginning of the subject and brings us right up to the present. That the book is neither superficial nor impossibly dense is rather remarkable and makes it easy to understand the course's success."
Howard Georgi, Harvard University

"In this book, Schwartz gives a thoughtful and modern treatment of many classical and contemporary topics. Students and experienced researchers will find much here of value."
Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Book Description

A modern introduction to quantum field theory for graduates, providing intuitive, physical explanations supported by real-world applications and homework problems.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (December 15, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 859 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1107034736
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1107034730
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.44 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 1.5 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #224,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16 in Particle Physics
- #34 in Waves & Wave Mechanics (Books)
- #87 in Mathematical Physics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
168 ratings

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Matthew Dean Schwartz

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Zach

Fantastic books!

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2016

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Can't recommend a better book for qft. Schwartz really lays out ideas behind qft that most other books take for granted. Srednicki is great for the details of path integral calculations, but doesn't offer the same level of pedagogy as schwartz. Zee has some quick tricks and insight that rivals schwartz but doesn't compare in terms of depth. I haven't read much from peskin and Schroeder but schwartz appears to be similar in concept, with more modern ideas, and a clearer exposition. This should be your main qft book.

3 people found this helpful

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I consider this to be the best textbook for an introductory graduate course

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020

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In my opinion, this is the best quantum field theory (QFT) book you want to learn from. If you are already an expert, there are better reference books for sure (and I own several of those.) However, I am not aware of a better book more suitable for a one-year introductory graduate course. (The class will probably will cover slightly more than half of the contents during that time.) Ideally, the entire book should be a four semester (or five or six quarter) course.

It is neither too dry too mathematical and abstract, nor is it superficial, telling you things what they are without a detailed explanation. You will find many other books on QFT which will cover a specific topic better than Schwartz does. But overall, I have not seen one that is better rounded and better organized for the benefit of the student than this one. The focus of the book is the student, not a demonstration of the virtuosity of the author. This is clearly not meant to be a reference book, but equally clearly it makes an excellent text-book. For a yearlong introductory class on QFT, I highly recommend it.

6 people found this helpful

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math_guy51

Extremely well suited for self-study, full of insights !

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2019

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A great book to learn, review and/or get up to date on the present knowledge of QFT and the "Standard Model" !
While there are quite a few excellent QFT texts out there Professor Schwartz's book is an outstanding contribution to the list !
His style is quite thorough and yet is succinct and as clear as it is possible to cover a difficult (and convoluted) subject.
As a result Professor Schwartz succeeds at covering (in a lot fewer pages) much more material than Coleman's (remarkable!) QFT "class notes" book.
One drawback (that to be honest at first discouraged me from studying the book) is that his equations are "incomplete" in the sense that he does not fully (and/or accurately) document the "standard covariant/contravariant' indexing used my most ( all?) other widely used QFT texts.
The advantage however is that the equations are quite easier to read and write down but it is up to the reader to verify that the equations are indeed "correct" and agree with the ones given in other standard texts. .

3 people found this helpful

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Henry M.

A classic book on the subject

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2020

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Excellent book on the subject. A classic textbook. Highly recommended for graduate students and researchers.

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Pooya J

Modern, intuitive, and enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2014

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I was always interested in learning QFT but none of the available books (P&S, Srednicki, Zee's Nutshell) could offer me a clear understanding of the logic and reasoning behind QFT's esoteric formalism. That all changed after taking on Matthew Schwartz's book. There is so much to tell about this marvelous book, therefore I have thematically split my review into 5 sections below.

Style of presentation: This is by far the most *congenial* (not for a lack of adjective) physics book I have taken on so far! The book adopts a refreshingly friendly and colloquial writing style (much like a tutor), calling out the big picture and emphasizing the important points in every discussion. It not only explains how the theory should work, but also how it should not, by pointing out the possible naive interpretations that a novice might make; Along the same line, the author keeps comparing the new topics with previous ones, in a non-repetitive way, each time shedding more light from a different angle, which helps bolster the core ideas in the reader's mind without overwhelming him/her, allowing the reader to make some profound conceptual connections.

Intuition and depth: This is the most intuitive QFT book I have seen. Ideas that previously were merely mathematical equations became commonsense after being exposed to this book. Matthew Schwartz transcends the math beyond what is offered by the classic references in the field by adding his well-worded intuition, targeted at a graduate student. Just as a few examples from the first quarter of the book, the meanings of the commutation relations between the fields and their derivatives are beautifully tied to causality, the LSZ formula is demystified by making it responsible for generating the initial and final states, the essence of QFT interactions is concisely (and yet fully) presented (in only a few pages) through the Lagrangian derivation of the Feynman rules, prior to presenting the messier, yet more systematic Hamiltonian formulation, the guage-invariance and Ward identity are discussed in great depth through various illustrative examples, the discussion of various representations of the Lorentz and Poincare groups are quite unique, thanks to providing topological pictures and realistic numerical examples after building the math machinery, etc.

Breadth: The multitude of topics covered is extensive, ranging from QFT and QED, to a complete treatment of the Standard Model, QCD and advanced topics such as background fields, heavy-quark physics, jets and effective theory. Moreover, each idea is presented/formulated through various approaches/methods, e.g. Feynman rules are derived in space mode and momentum mode using both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian approaches.

Level, rigor, and notation: Without a doubt, this book (and frankly the whole subject) is intended to be taken up by a physics graduate student, although a talented senior undergraduate should also find the book useful. As for the mathematical rigor, I would describe it as "just enough", for a physics book. As far as notation, the author has been very careful not to confuse the reader by using excessive/abstruse notations; the author uses the modern conventions (first print is in 2014) and all the notations are clarified upon introduction.

Necessary background: In order to really appreciate the book the reader should have a solid background in Quantum mechanics (Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations, spin, scattering, etc) and know the basics of Special theory of relativity, Electrodynamics, matrix algebra, multivariable calculus, and Complex integrals.

As a final note, I should mention that the book has its own website, with a newly launched Forum section, where the author graciously answers readers' questions.

Overall I really enjoy reading this book and highly recommend it.

48 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Barry Thornton

A new standard in QFT

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2015

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I agree with many of the other reviewers that this book sets a new standard in QFT.

The presentation is original and does not really follow the (historically based) progression of initially focussing on Klein-Gordon, followed by Dirac, followed by QED. The influence of Coleman is much in evidence here - for example, gauge fields are introduced (before spinors fields) as a consequence of the symmetry of the Poincare group, which may not be the most straightforward introduction.

As the author states in the preface, this is a physics book, rather than a maths book, and the theory is not developed as a mathematical derivation (in contrast to, for example, Srednicki). Things are explained in a surprisingly "wordy" way, but the author has gone to a lot of trouble to explain things clearly, concisely and thoroughly - a great achievement. However, this is not an easy text on the level of Ryder or some of the more recent student friendly texts and could also be used as a reference for practitioners.

If I was learning QFT from scratch again I would start off with the new Lancaster book and then aim to progress to this one. I still think that Peskin, Srednicki and Zee and great texts, but this stands above them all.

7 people found this helpful

simon alford

Book was damaged, and sold as such.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2022

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Appeared to be water damage fastening pages together. Careful prising apart meant all pages were legible. So no need to return it. £20 cheaper.

Fabricio Marques

A good book which requires some previous experience

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2017

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It is a great book although it starts from very basic topics and sometimes jumps to advanced ones leaving some gaps. The upper and lower indices convention could be better as well. Even so, it is one of the more complete QFT books I have ever seen, but it probably requires some previous experience whithin the area for the student to be able to effectively learn from it.

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Book Binding is poor

Reviewed in India on September 9, 2019

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Paper quality is ordinary and hard binder is not glued well.(I have stuck it back with fevicol, it's ok now)

Rating is not for the content in the book.

6 people found this helpful

Ronnie

Not for the Feint Hearted

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2014

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Wow!! I love this book even though it's killing me. As a physics post-grad I bought this book not knowing anything about it but encouraged by the enthusiastic write-ups and reviews it attracted and my desire to get to grips with the modern approach to QFT (better than I did as a grad student, albeit 15 or so years ago). But I'm afraid this is just like all the other physics books I know - highly phenomenological in spirit with little interest in underlying principles. This comes out most clearly when discussing/treating fields; they are regarded as objects to be manipulated according to seemingly arbitraray rules chosen according to the problem in hand - for example sometimes as physical objects and at other times as mathematical models. There is always, of course, a tenuous link to experiment.
The best treatment I have seen of this "problem" is the article on QFT in Wiki
Despite my remarks above, I'm very glad I bought this book which I shall continue to work hard at

4 people found this helpful

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Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model 1st Edition

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