PHYS GR8048

representation theory, spinors, fermion and boson lagrangian and interactions, standard model construction

The path integral formulation of QFT, Yang-Mills and BRST gauge fixing, loop expansions and the quantum effective action, regularization methods and the heat kernel, supersymmetric extensions of O(1,3), and renormalization and Wilson's Renormalization Group as well as some useful toy models for exploring representative behaviors of theories. In terms of perspective, we learned the power of thinking of the standard model and gravity as effective field theories.

Finally a good explanation for the motivation behind the non-Abelian gauge theories. Although

mainly: quantization of gauge theories; renormalization how to use toy models (in particular, ordinary integrals and QM) to illustrate abstract / less accessible in QFT

Non-Abelian gauge theory, BRST symmetry, quantum effective actinon, renomalization group.

Would recommend to everyone who is at least somewhat interested in the high-energy physics. I did not know anything about particle physics and still, somehow, never felt out of touch during the class. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2022 Course: PHYSGR8048_001_2022_3-QUANTUMFIELDTHEORYII : PHYSGR8048_001_2022_3 - QUANTUM FIELD THEORY II Instructor: Alberto Nicolis

This course with Professor Denef was exceptionally well done in my opinion. While it was quite challenging, I feel that I have come away from it with a strong understanding of many topics in QFT. Professor Denef is also quite a fun lecturer and is exceptionally talented at constructing interesting and pedagogical problem sets.

We covered QFT for spinor fields and gauge fields (abelian and non-abelian). Namely, we discussed real-life QFTs including QED, QCD, and the electroweak sector of the Standard Model (i.e. the Higgs mechanism). We also looked at some concrete examples of renormalization of realistic theories and what their beta functions look like (ex. asymptotic freedom). The beginning of the course included a review of the general theory of QFT from the path integral perspective and a number of theory topics like the optical theorem.

This course might give you a lot of surprises. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2021 Course: PHYSGR8048_001_2021_3-QUANTUMFIELDTHEORYII : PHYSGR8048_001_2021_3 - QUANTUM FIELD THEORY II Instructor: Frederik Denef