Quantum field theory has been an elementmp course for the students
majored in theoretical physics. In recent years it has become a basic
knowledge needed for all the students in physics. There is much more
variation in style and content among quantum field theory courses
than, for example, quantum mechanics. Quantum field theory is
indeed a hard course. But we knew that physics was a hard major
Quantum field theory is still an active research topic, even though it
has had many experimentally confirmed results since l940's. As a
result, a quantum field theory course has the flavor of research f there is no set of mathematically rigorous rules to solve any problem.
Answers are not final, and should be treated as questions. One should
not be satisfied with the solution of a problem, but consider it as a
first step toward generalization.
This book arose from the lecture given to the graduate students in
Physics Department of Fudan University since l994. The contents of
the book are arranged as follows. The first three chapters deal with
the basic properties and the quantization of the free scalar, spinor and electromagnetic fields, respectively. Chapter 4 transits to the
perturbation theory and chapter 5 is a brief introduction of the
quantum electromagnetic processes. Chapter 6 represents the
radiative corrections and finally, chapter 7 introduces the functional
method used in quantum field theory. This textbook is designed for
the graduates in Physics, but it also be of interest to scientists and
engineeers major in sub--atomic fields.