No label defined (Q4420617)

This is a textbook which provides a short and pragmatic introduction to the formalism of quantum field theory (but not to the mathematics behind it). It is distinguished from many other monographs by the fact that mainly the basic ideas are explained (usually in an intuitive and didactically appealing way), while detailed calculations are omitted or left as an excercise to the reader. At the same time it touches many advanced topics (including applications in particle and condensed matter physics) which are usually not treated in introductory courses. The book contains eight chapters. The first three are devoted to the basic topics containing: path integrals, canonical quantization, perturbation theory, Feynman diagrams, scattering amplitudes, Poincaré and gauge invariance, scalar, Dirac and Maxwell fields, and renormalization theory. Chapter four treats spontaneous symmetry breaking, its application in gauge theories and topological issues (e.g. magnetic monopoles). Applications to condensed matter physics are the main subjects of the chapters five and six. In this part of the book we can find material about: superfluidity, field theory at finite temperature, Ginzburg-Landau theory, Superconductivity, Solitons and other topological defects, Fractional statistics, Chern-Simons theory, Quantum-Hall effect, ferromagnetism, and the renormalization group. The last two chapters return to particle physics. They contain dicussions of: the Weinberg-Salam model of electroweak interaction, quantum chromodynamics, grand unification, quantum gravity, supersymmetry, and (a very short) glimpse on string theory. I think that this is a very valuable book which fills an important gap in the literatur, because it provides a detailed survey, not only on quantum field theory, but also on many of its applications in different areas. Due to the vast amount of material which is presented on only 518 pages it is clear that the discussion (in particular of the more advanced topics) has to be sketchy. In most cases, however, the basic ideas are explained in a way which is comprehensible not only for experienced readers. To learn quantum field theory from this book alone is, nevertheless, a hard task, because the reader has to work out too many details for himself. This brings me to the only point I have to criticize about this work: It would be nice to have more references to places in other monographs or the original literatur, where the details are laid out.