This novel approach is presented for the first time in book form. The author demonstrates that fundamental concepts and methods from phenomenological particle physics can be derived rigorously from well-defined general assumptions in a mathematically clean way.

This book develops a novel approach to perturbative quantum field theory: starting with a perturbative formulation of classical field theory, quantization is achieved by means of deformation quantization of the underlying free theory and by applying the principle that as much of the classical structure as possible should be maintained. The resulting formulation of perturbative quantum field theory is a version of the Epstein-Glaser renormalization that is conceptually clear, mathematically rigorous and pragmatically useful for physicists. The connection to traditional formulations of perturbative quantum field theory is also elaborated on, and the formalism is illustrated in a wealth of examples and exercises.

This book deals with quantum field theory, the language of modern elementary particles physics. Based on university lectures given by the author, this volume provides a detailed technical treatment of quantum field theory that is particularly useful for students; it begins with the quantization of the most important free fields, the scalar, the spin-1/2 and the photon fields, and is then followed by a detailed account of symmetry properties, including a discussion on global and local symmetries and the spontaneous breaking of symmetries. Perturbation theory, one-loop effects for quantum electrodynamics, and renormalization properties are also covered. In this second edition new chapters have been introduced with a general description of path integral quantization both on quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory, with a particular attention to the gauge fields. The path integral quantization of Fermi fields is also discussed. Request Inspection Copy

Compiled to illustrate the recent history of Quantum Field Theory and its trends, this collection of selected reprints by Jürg Fröhlich, a leading theoretician in the field, is a comprehensive guide of the more mathematical aspects of the subject. Results and methods of the past fifteen years are reviewed. The analytical methods employed are non-perturbative and, for the larger part, mathematically rigorous. Most articles are review articles surveying certain important developments in quantum field theory and guiding the reader towards the original literature.The volume begins with a comprehensive introduction by Jürg Fröhlich.The theory of phase transitions and continuous symmetry breaking is reviewed in the first section. The second section discusses the non-perturbative quantization of topological solitons. The third section is devoted to the study of gauge fields. A paper on the triviality of λϖ4 — theory in four and more dimensions is found in the fourth section, while the fifth contains two articles on “random geometry”. The sixth and final part addresses topics in low-dimensional quantum field theory, including braid statistics, two-dimensional conformal field theory and an application to condensed matter theory.

This comprehensive text begins with the standard quantization of electrodynamics and perturbative renormalization, advancing to functional methods, relativistic bound states, broken symmetries, nonabelian gauge fields, and asymptotic behavior. 1980 edition.

Axiomatic and constructive approaches to quantum field theory first aim to establish it on precise, non-perturbative bases: general axioms and rigorous definition of specific theories respectively. From the viewpoint of particle physics, the goal is then to develop a relativistic scattering theory, including particle analysis and the derivation of general properties of collision amplitudes. Taking into account successive improvements, this book provides a modern, self-contained, and coherent presentation of important developments from the last twenty years, most of which have not been treated or discussed in detail in earlier books. These developments include in particular the axiomatic derivation, in massive theories, of general causal and momentum-space analyticity properties of multiparticle collision amplitudes; the constructive definition, initially in the (unphysical) euclidean space, of various models including non-super-renormalizable theories treated in the 1980s via phase-space expansions; and the subsequent constructive approach to scattering theory, which provides information on the mass spectrum, asymptotic completeness, and multiparticle structure in increasingly higher energy regions. Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Perturbative Algebraic Quantum Field Theory (pAQFT), the subject of this book, is a complete and mathematically rigorous treatment of perturbative quantum field theory (pQFT) that doesn’t require the use of divergent quantities and works on a large class of Lorenzian manifolds. We discuss in detail the examples of scalar fields, gauge theories and the effective quantum gravity. pQFT models describe a wide range of physical phenomena and have remarkable agreement with experimental results. Despite this success, the theory suffers from many conceptual problems. pAQFT is a good candidate to solve many, if not all, of these conceptual problems. Chapters 1-3 provide some background in mathematics and physics. Chapter 4 concerns classical theory of the scalar field, which is subsequently quantized in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 7 covers gauge theory and chapter 8 discusses effective quantum gravity. The book aims to be accessible to researchers and graduate students, who are interested in the mathematical foundations of pQFT.