Customer Reviews

Quantum Electrodynamics

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This book basically covers the same material as chapters 6-9 of the classic "Relativistic Quantum Mechanics" by Bjorken & Drell.
- Propagator
- Basic Quantum Electrodynamical Processes
- The Scattering Matrix in Higher Order (including good discussions of vacuum polarization, electron self-energy and the vertex correction)
- QED of spinless bosons

In addition to this it covers bound systems and strong fields, which are not discussed in B&D. The book also does a good job of working out a lot of the details missing from B&D.

The only minuses are:
-- some of the more advanced topics in B&D are dropped.
-- there are a lot of typos (but the alert reader should spot them easily)

Dr Greiner and his coauthor are not ashamed of treating a hard subject (Quantum Electrodynamics) the easiest way.
They use the Feynman propagator technique instead of the Quantum Field Theory methods, rendering the book accessible to a greater audience.
The chapter about bound-states is a plus not easily found in QE books. They push the theory till the applications ( positronium levels of energy ).
Before you start reading this book, read ( at least some parts of ) the Relativistic Quantum Mechanics book in the same series.

QED is known as the most accurate theory in physics. This text nicely explains the major achievements in QED by Feynmann, Schwniger, and Tomonaga. Important connection among relativities, quantum mechanics, and classical electrodynamics.