Diagrammatica: The Path to Feynman Diagrams (Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics) [Paperback]

Martinus Veltman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521456924 | ISBN-13: 978-0521456920 | Publication Date: July 29, 1994

This book provides an easily accessible introduction to quantum field theory via Feynman rules and calculations in particle physics. The aim is to make clear what the physical foundations of present day field theory are, to clarify the physical content of Feynman rules, and to outline their domain of applicability. The book begins with a brief review of some aspects of Einstein's theory of relativity that are of particular importance for field theory, before going on to consider the relativistic quantum mechanics of free particles, interacting fields, and particles with spin. The techniques learned in the chapters are then demonstrated in examples that might be encountered in real accelerator physics. Further chapters contain discussions on renormalization, massive and massless vector fields and unitarity. A final chapter presents concluding arguments concerning quantum electrodynamics. The book includes valuable appendices that review some essential mathematics, including complex spaces, matrices, the CBH equation, traces and dimensional regularization. An appendix containing a comprehensive summary of the rules and conventions used is followed by an appendix specifying the full Lagrangian of the Standard Model and the corresponding Feynman rules. To make the book useful for a wide audience a final appendix provides a discussion on the metric used, and an easy to use dictionary connecting equations written with different metric. Written as a textbook, many diagrams and examples are included.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a masterful introduction to quantum field theory and its application to elementary particle physics through Feynman diagrams. The approach is constructive rather than deductive, and the book offers many fine insights into the physics content of results that may be thought of as purely mathematical." Ernest Ma and Jose Wudka, Physics Today

"...would be a useful and solid starting point for a novice field theorist..." R. Delbourgo, Mathematical Reviews

Book Description

Providing an easily accessible introduction to quantum field theory via Feynman rules and calculations in particle physics, the aim of this text is to clarify the physical foundations of present day field theory and the physical content of Feynman rules, and to outline their domain of applicability.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (July 29, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521456924
• ISBN-13: 978-0521456920
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,101,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thinking with Feynman diagrams, July 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Diagrammatica: The Path to Feynman Diagrams (Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics) (Paperback)

This is a book on quantum field theory using, much more than what is usual, the language of Feynman diagrams, which are pictorial-analytic expressions for terms of the perturbative series for S-matrix elements. Several years ago what could be considered a cruder version of this book circulated widely as a Yellow Report from CERN. It was an admirable text, from which most of us learned how to write the Feynman rules for gauge theories in exotic gauges, and how to renormalize everything by using the dimensional methods. Now comes the book version, polished so that beginners can use it, and with a little more tissue connecting the bones. The Yellow Report was called Diagrammar and became something of a religion. Perusing the book I see no reason why it should not have a comparable success. I particularly admire the graphic derivation of the Ward identities and the (also graphical) treatment of unitarity, very difficult to find antwhere else. The author, Veltman, is a great! authority in Field Theory and a fantastic teacher.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A QFT book for physicists not for mathematicians, April 13, 2005

By 

Carlos Janer Jimenez - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diagrammatica: The Path to Feynman Diagrams (Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics) (Paperback)

This is a QFT book written by a physicist (Veltman is one of the
1999 Physics Nobel prize winners) for physicists. Mathematical
rigour was definitely not one of Veltman's major concerns when he
wrote this book. However clarity was indeed a big issue for him
and that is most unusual if you take into account that most Nobel
prize awarded physicist, are usually much more concerned about
"image", "posterity" and "mathematical rigour" than by
pedagogical matters.

This book is a very good one to start with if you want to learn
QFT. It makes no use of the path integral formalism (which is the
prefered one by "modern" QFT theorists) . The canonical
formalism (the one used in this book) makes explicit the local
nature of QFT; this is an important issue since locallity stems
from Lorentz invariance and QFT is nothing but the physical
theory resulting from quantum mechanics and restricted
relativity. I fully agree with the statement that the path
integral method should be sistematically discarded in
introductory QFT books like this one.


As its title indicates, Feynman diagrams are the central issue of
this book. Veltman explains in the introduction: "This is then
the aim: to make it clear which principles are behind the
(Feynman) rules and to define clarly the calculation details".
This seems to be the natural choice for such an introductory
text; quoting Veltman again: " ... the theory (meaning QFT), or
rather the succesful part (of it), is perturbation theory ...
Perturbation theory means Feynman diagrams ".

This book provides a clear logical frame that supports the
calculation machinery of perturbative QFT's and should be
recommended to any person willing to introduce himself/herself in
Quantum Field Theory as a first choice course book.


Taking into account that this is an introductory book, its
short extension (200 pages) its scope is limited to QED and no
serious attempt is made to treat non-abelian theories.

One minor (for me it is minor, since my english is also rather
poor) annoyance: Even I (my mother tonge is spanish) can see
that the writing style is not very good and that some of the used
expressions are nothing more that literal translations from dutch
into english.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cernoramam, August 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Diagrammatica: The Path to Feynman Diagrams (Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics) (Paperback)

it's a CERN yellow report from the 1970s sometime. this is the revision and printed version of it. he knows what he is doing, or at least the nobel commitee thought so when he got the prize with t'hooft. anyway it's called diagrammar and you can download it from the CERN site.