Last updated: 12/26/24

PHYS 7650 – Quantum Field Theory II (Spring Semester 2025)

Class Information:

Instructor: Gustavo Marques-Tavares (he/him) 

Email: g.marques@utah.edu

Phone Number: 801-581-6901 (office number, not sure if it works) 

Lectures: Tue & Thurs, 2:00pm – 3:20pm

Classroom: JFB 212A

Office Hours: Right after class or by appointment

Office Location: INSCC 214

Textbook: Mark Srednicki, Quantum Field Theory -- online version available here

Course outcomes and objectives:

Representations of Lorentz group; Quantizing free spin 1/2 and spin 1 fields; Path integrals for fermions; Yukawa theory, including renormalization and the beta function; Quantum electrodynamics, including renormalization and the beta function; Ward identities; Introduction to non-abelian gauge theories; Spontaneous symmetry breaking of gauge theories (Higgs mechanism);

Course requirements and evaluation:

One of the most important aspects of learning the material will be working on the homework on a timely fashion. There will be problem sets every other week, and although students are encouraged to work together they should write their own solutions to the problems. If you need an extension, you must contact me before the deadline. There will be no exam for this class, instead each student will pick an advanced topic from a suggestions list, learn it independently and prepare a short presentation for the class at the end of the semester.

Grading scale:

Grades will be computed using the average homework score (80%) and the final presentation (20%), and converted to a letter using the thresholds in the table below: