Applications of Quantum Theory

Phys 451, Spring 2022

Course Web Page

Brooks Thomas

Hugel 020
Physics Department
Lafayette College
730 High St.
Easton, PA 18042

Phone: (610) 330-5207
Email: thomasbd@lafayette.edu

Contact Info

Physics at Lafayette

Other Resources

• My Personal Home Page
• Lafayette Physics Department
• Physics Courses

• List of NSF REU Sites
• APS Resources for Students
• Society of Physics Students (SPS)
• CUWiP
• SACNAS
• National Society of Black Physicists

Course Materials and Other Useful Links

• Syllabus
• Course Moodle

Textbook

• Tom Lancaster and Stephen J. Blundell, Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Office hours

My protocol for conducting office hours may change over the course of the semester, depending on the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. If the current protocol, which appears near the top of the course Moodle, reads "in person or virtual," you have the option of meeting with me either in person or virtually. By contrast, if the office-hours protocol reads "virtual only," I will only be available to meet with you virtually.


• Mon., 3:00 - 4:00 PM Eastern
• Wed., 1:00 - 3:00 PM Eastern
• Fri., 2:00 - 3:00 PM Eastern

In-person office-hours meetings will be held not in my office (Hugel 020), but rather in Hugel 117, which is a better-ventilated room equipped with a HEPA filter. Virtual office-hours meetings will take place via the office-hours Zoom link provided on the course Moodle. If I am meeting with another student at the time you join the Zoom meeting, I may ask you to wait in the waiting room for a bit. However, if you and other students in the course have the same question, you can certainly meet with me as a group. If you cannot make it during my formal office hours, please email me in order to schedule an appointment.

Course Schedule

Note: readings marked "Lancaster" are from Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur by Tom Lancaster and Stephen J. Blundell, readings marked "Griffiths" are supplementary readings from "Introduction to Elementary Particles" by David Griffiths.



Date	Topic	Reading	Homework
Week 1
1/24	Introduction
1/26	A Relativity Booster	Griffiths 3.1
1/28	"Sing me, μ's": Einstein Notation	Lancaster 0.4; Griffiths 3.2-3.5
Week 2
1/31	Scalars, Vectors, and Tensors	TBA
2/2	Electromagnetism in Covariant Notation	Lancaster 0.6; Griffiths 7.4
2/4	Functionals: Processing Paths	Lancaster 1.1-1.3	HW 1 Due
Week 3
2/7	Lagrangians and Least Action	Lancaster 1.4-1.5
2/9	Classical Lagrangians and Hamiltonians	Lancaster 5.1-5.4
2/11	The Quantum Harmonic Oscillator	Lancaster 2.1-2.3	HW 2 Due
Week 4
2/14	Coupled Quantum Oscillators	Lancaster 2.4-2.5
2/16	Raising, Lowering, and Occupation Number	Lancaster 3.1-3.5
2/18	What the Fock?	Lancaster 4.1-4.2	HW 3 Due
Week 5
2/21	The Klein-Gordon Equation	Lancaster 6.1-6.4
2/23	The Dirac Equation	Lancaster 36.1-36.2; Griffiths 7.1
2/25	Spin	Lancaster 36.3-36.5; Griffiths 7.2	HW 4 Due, Checkpoint 1 Period Begins
Week 6
2/28	Building Lagrangians	Lancaster 7.1-7.6
3/2	Complex Integration	Lancaster Appendix B
3/4	The Heisenberg Picture of Quantum Mechanics	Lancaster 8.1-8.2	Checkpoint 1 Period Ends
Week 7
3/7	Symmetry Transformations, Part I	Lancaster 9.1-9.3
3/9	Symmetry Transformations, Part II	Lancaster 9.4-9.5
3/11	Continuous Symmetries and Noether's Theorem	Lancaster 10.1-10.4	HW 5 Due
Week 8
3/14	Spring Break (No Class)
3/16	Spring Break (No Class)
3/18	Spring Break (No Class)
Week 9
3/21	Canonical Quantization	Lancaster 11.1-11.3
3/23	Antiparticles and the Casimir Effect	Lancaster 11.4-11.5
3/25	Complex Scalars and the Noether Current	Lancaster 12.1-12.3	HW 6 Due
Week 10
3/28	Green's Functions	Lancaster 16.1-16.4
3/30	Propagators	Lancaster 17.1-17.5
4/1	Vertices and the S-Matrix	Lancaster 18.1-18.3	HW 7 Due
Week 11
4/4	Perturbation Theory: A Piece of the Action	Lancaster 18.4-18.5
4/6	Feynman Diagrams	Lancaster 19.1-19.3
4/8	Feynman Rules in Momentum Space	Lancaster 19.4-19.6	HW 8 Due, Checkpoint 2 Period Begins
Week 12
4/11	Scattering Theory	Lancaster 20.1-20.3
4/13	Scattering Practice: Decay Rates	Griffiths 6.1.1, 6.2.1
4/15	Scattering Practice: Cross-Sections	Lancaster 20.4; Griffiths 6.1.2, 6.2.2
Week 13
4/18	Gauge Theory	Lancaster 14.1-14.3
4/19			Checkpoint 2 Period Ends
4/20	Beyond Electromagnetism	Lancaster 46.1-46.2; Griffiths 8.3-8.4
4/22	Discrete Symmetries	Lancaster 15.1-15.4	HW 9 Due
Week 14
4/25	Thrown for a Loop: Dealing with Divergences	Lancaster 32.1-32.3
4/27	Renormalization	Lancaster 32.4-32.6
4/29	Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking	Lancaster 26.1-26.3; Griffiths 10.8	HW 10 Due
Week 15
5/2	The Higgs Mechanism	Lancaster 26.4-26.5; Griffiths 10.9
5/4	Effective Field Theory and "Integrating Out"	TBA
5/6	Open Questions	TBA	HW 11 Due, Checkpoint 3 Period Begins
Final Exam
5/13	Checkpoint 3 Period Ends