Physics 221, Fall 1999

Instructor : Doug Singleton

Office : Science 248

Office Hours : MWF 1100-1300

Class Hours : MWF 800-850

Class Room : Science 242

Phone : 278-2523

E-mail : dougs@csufresno.edu

Text - Quantum Field Theory , Revised Edition, F. Mandl and G. Shaw

Supplement - Quantum Field Theory, 2nd Edition, L. Ryder


Mid-term : There will an in class mid-term near the end of October or beginning of November. If it fits into everyone's schedule I'll try to have this at a time that will give you longer than the normal class time in which to do the mid-term. The mid-term counts for 20% of your grade

Final Exam A final exam will be given on Dec. 15 from 845 to 1045 in Science 242 . It will cover all the material in the course and count for 30 % of your grade. Depending everyone's schedule it may be possible to move the date, time and/or place
of the final exam. This will be discussed in class.

Grading Homework will count 50 % of your grade. The mid-term counts 20 %. The final exam counts 30 %. The grades will be given according to the following scale

A = 85 - 100 %

B = 72-84 %

C = 60-71 %

D = 47 - 59 %

F = 0 - 46 %

Attendance You are responsible for all announcements and material given in class, even if it is not in the textbook and even if you are not in class.

Homework The homework problems are the most important part of the course. You should plan to spend a minimum of 12-15 hours per week working out the solutions and writing your homework sets in a NEAT format. If I can't easily read the assignment you may have to re-copy it. 

Topics

(I) Quantizing E&M Fields ---  Classical E&M fields; The quantum simple harmonic oscillator; quantum E&M fields ; Radiation and atoms (Reading : Chapter 1)

(II) Lagrangian Field Theory --- Classical field theory; quantum field theory; Noether's theorem (Reading : Chapter 2)

(III) Spin 0 and Spin 1/2 Fields --- The Klein-Gordon field; commutation relationships; the spin 0 propagator; the Dirac field; the fermion propagator; interaction of fermion with E&M field (Reading : Chapters  3 , 4 and Appendix A)

(IV) Spin 1 field : the Photon  --- Covariant quantization; the photon propagator (Reading : Chapter 5)

(V) The S-matrix and Feynman Rules ---- S-matrix ; Wick theorem; Feynman rules in x-space or in p-space; QED  (Reading : Chapters 6 and 7).

(VI) Tree-level QED processes ------  Spin sums ; polarization sums; pair production; Bhabha scattering; Compton scattering; external field scattering; IR divergences (Reading : Chapter 8)

(VII) Higher Order processes (Loop diagrams) ------- Radiative corrections; self energy diagrams; vertex diagrams; applications; regularization techniques (Reading : Chapters 9, 10)

(VIII) The Weak Interaction and Standard Model Introduction ------ If we finish the first 10 chapters then we'll try to get as far through the theory of the weak interaction and an introduction to the Standard Model of particle physics as time permits (Reading : Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14)