Quantum Field Theory

'This accessible and conceptually structured introduction to quantum field theory will be of value not only to beginning students but also to practicing physicists interested in learning or reviewing specific topics. The book is organized in a modular fashion, which makes it easy to extract the basic information relevant to the reader's area(s) of interest. The material is presented in an intuitively clear and informal style. Foundational topics such as path integrals and Lorentz representations are included early in the exposition, as appropriate for a modern course; later material includes a detailed description of the Standard Model and other advanced topics such as instantons, supersymmetry, and unification, which are essential knowledge for working particle physicists, but which are not treated in most other field theory texts.' Washington Taylor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'Over the years I have used parts of Srednicki's book to teach field theory to physics graduate students not specializing in particle physics. This is a vast subject, with many outstanding textbooks. Among these, Srednicki's stands out for its pedagogy. The subject is built logically, rather than historically. The exposition walks the line between getting the idea across and not shying away from a serious calculation. Path integrals enter early, and renormalization theory is pursued from the very start... By the end of the course the student should understand both beta functions and the Standard Model, and be able to carry through a calculation when a perturbative calculation is called for.' Predrag Cvitanovi, Georgia Institute of Technology 'This book should become a favorite of quantum field theory students and instructors. The approach is systematic and comprehensive, but the friendly and encouraging voice of the author comes through loud and clear to make the subject feel accessible. Many interesting examples are worked out in pedagogical detail.' Ann Nelson, University of Washington 'I expect that this will be the textbook of choice for many quantum field theory courses. The presentation is straightforward and readable, with the author's easy-going 'voice' coming through in his writing. The organization into a large number of short chapters, with the prerequisites for each chapter clearly marked, makes the book flexible and easy to teach from or to read independently. A large and varied collection of special topics is available, depending on the interests of the instructor and the student.' Joseph Polchinski, University of California, Santa Barbara