Field Theory in Particle Physics (2017-2018)
(Particles and Fields)
Lecturers: Eric Laenen, Wouter Waalewijn, Bernard de Wit
Tutors: Jort Sinninghe-Damste, ..., ...

Last updated: ...

This is the website for UvA students. The Utrecht website for the course is ....

Content of the course

This is a joint course of the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University on (non-abelian) gauge theories. We start with a general discussion of rigid and local symmetries, leading to the construction of gauge theories. Their quantization is then discussed, including gauge-fixing, ghosts and BRST. We also develop the necessary tools to carry out loop calculations using dimensional regularization, and introduce the renormalization group. The course is concluded with a discussion of QCD, spontaneous symmetry breaking, the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism and an outlook on the search for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Prerequistites

A good introduction in quantum field theory. See e.g. UU lecture notes Introduction to Quantum Field Theory.
Prior knowledge of Lie groups is an advantage.

How to pass the course

Students can pass the course in either of two ways, A) or B).
A) The final grade is composed of 20% homework, 30% midterm, and 50% final exam. The final exam score must be at least 5.0.
B) The final grade is 100% composed of the final exam.
There will be a retake for the final exam (i.e. not for the midterm). For the retake the student can again choose option A or B.
Amsterdam students who hand in sufficient homework will get 3 EC extra credit for the course, for a total of 9 EC.

Homework

Every two weeks, two homework problems will be assigned at the end of the tutorial session, which have to be handed in one week later at the beginning of the next tutorial. One of the two problems will be graded (we don't tell you which one) during the consecutive week and the corrections can be discussed in the next tutorial session. The exercise that has not been graded will be briefly discussed at the tutorial session as well. For students who are late with handing in homework, we subtract 2 out of 10 points. Students that are much too late in handing in receive 0 points (we judge what "much too late" means).

Hand-in exercises are an important part of the feed-back mechanism from lecturer/TA to student. The quality, readability, and exposure of this work must therefore be of such a standard that feed-back is possible and efficient. Although it is not required to be type-set your solutions, it is necessary that the steps and structure are clear. In particular, please rewrite and restyle erratic calculations in a way that allows for efficient grading. Also: no solutions by email, no scanned pictures with your phone, etc. will be accepted. Simply hand in the problems at the tutorial session. Copying solutions from previous years is of course not allowed, and will be checked for.

Exams

Midterm exam: Wednesday 12 April, SPA F1.02, 10.00-12.00.

No books, lecture notes etc, will be allowed during the exams.

Literature and lecture notes

Lecture notes can be bought in Amsterdam at the ESC desk. We will announce in class when the next set of notes will become available. Part 1 of the notes should be available before the start of the tutorials. The notes from previous years have become obsolete. The lecture notes are part of the text of a forthcoming book "Field Theory in Particle Physics" (de Wit, Laenen, Smith).

Schedule

The course runs over 19 weeks of which 2 weeks are off and 2 weeks only have a (midterm) exam. During the other weeks there are weekly lectures on Wednesday from 10.00 - 12.00 and exercise sessions on Thursday from 9.00 - 13.00 (the exercise sessions are at a different time in Utrecht). During the first half of the course, the lectures will take place at the University of Amsterdam, room SPA C1.112. The exercise sessions will be in SPA B0.207. After ... the lectures will take place at Utrecht University, room ... and the exercises will be in room SPA G4.14.


Lectures and foreseen content

7 February: Abelian gauge theories
14 February: Nonabelian gauge theories
21 February: Nonabelian gauge theories
28 February: Renormalization
7 March: Renormalization and dimensional regularization
14 March: Loop calculations
21 March: Quantization of gauge theories
28 March: No class
4 April: Quantization of gauge theories
11 April: Midterm
18 April: Renormalization group
25 April: Renormalization group
2 May: QCD
9 May: QCD
16 May: Spontaneous symmetry breaking
23 May: No class
30 May: Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism
6 June: Standard Model and beyond
13 June: Final exam

Assigned exercises


8 February:
15 February:
22 February:
1 March:
8 March:
15 March:
22 March:
29 March: No class
5 April:
12 April: No class
19 April:
26 April:
3 May:
10 May:
17 May:
24 May: No class
31 May:
7 June:


Towards the end of the course we will schedule an extra meeting where we will answer your questions in preparation for the final exam.