Quantum field theory remains among the most important tools in defining
and explaining the microscopic world. Recent years have witnessed a
blossoming of developments and applications that extend far beyond the
theory's original scope. This comprehensive text offers a balanced
treatment, providing students with both a formal presentation and
numerous practical examples of calculations.
This two-part approach begins with the standard quantization of
electrodynamics, culminating in the perturbative renormalization. The
second part comprises functional methods, relativistic bound states,
broken symmetries, nonabelian gauge fields, and asymptotic behavior.
Appropriate for students and researchers in field theory, particle
physics, and related areas, this treatment presupposes a background in
quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, and relativity, and it assumes some
familiarity with classical calculus, including group theory and complex
analysis.