Mark Srednicki
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 2007, 660 PAGES
PRICE (HARDBACK) £36.00 ISBN 0-521-86449-6
This book provides a complete introduction to quantum field theory and the elementary particles. It is set at the level of graduate students who have covered special relativity and quantum mechanics. It covers, amongst other areas, the unification of forces, super symmetry, the renormalization group, quark and gluon scattering, and non-peturbative physics (magnetic monopoles and instantons).
It is written to teach in a step-by-step manner with lots of simple examples, and it is presented in a modular format with each chapter being self-contained. The book is designed to be the centrepiece of a year’s course and contains numerous exercises. Although a good text for self-study, it is primarily aimed at taught courses. There is a select bibliography that includes web addresses for the book’s errata, current experimental results, and the source of experimental papers.
With 660 pages, this is not an easy read, and, by the very nature of the material, is not for the easily daunted. The book has only a small index; I feel this is a fault with texts aimed to teach. However, the author, in the main, succeeds in his declared aim to give the impression that “the whole subject is effortlessly clear and obvious”. He does this at the, admitted, expense of mathematical rigour. For a first introduction to quantum field theory, I think the omission of mathematical rigour is sensible, and I commend the author on doing this.
When reading a textbook, it is natural for the reader to stop and rest with the completion of each chapter. Unfortunately, most texts have long chapters, and it is easy to find one’s concentration drifting part way through a chapter. This book is, thankfully, not divided into long chapters; each of the ninety-seven chapters is short, and I feel this substantially assists the student.
The book is well presented. The author, Mark Srednicki, is professor of physics at the University of California.
Dennis Morris AMIMA
Mathematics Today December 2010
Quantum Field Theory can be purchased at Amazon.co.uk
