In the Fall of 2009, I will teach the second semester of Quantum Field Theory. This is listed as Phys 890A Advanced Theoretical Physics. Here is the present plan for the course. Because there will be at least two Condensed Matter students registered, I am planning to include a unit on QFT and condensed matter, although the details are not yet finalized. Registered students can find the course web page on SPARK..

Thanks to all for a lively field theory class. Here is the final summary of the material covered.

I note that this course was recorded, so that video, notes and homework problems exist for any UMass student that wants to work this material as an independent study. The full course takes about 4GB and can be transferred on a USB stick.

It is unfortunate that UMass is closed until 11:00 today (Jan 29), especially when coupled with my being away next week. I had been counting on finishing the basic construction of a field today. I will adjust the plans for the classes and update you later today. I will put together an email list for everyone who signed up on Tuesday and will send around information that way. I will also post all info here. Enjoy the morning off, but check back later for more info.

Here is the  syllabus for the QFT course. I have also produced the video of the first class. Folks who are registered in the course can find both the notes from the class and the video on SPARK – log in here . While in general I will only post on SPARK, save for rare exceptions, I will also make the first few classes available on Screencast so that anyone can see them – for example if someone joins the class late. The Screencast version is posted here.

Finally, if you are interested in stopping by my office to chat (which I strongly encourage), you can see some of my official conflicts by consulting my Google calendar .

I am experimenting with making videos of some lectures, and will be doing this with my field theory course in Spring 2009. The idea is to archive these for future students to use at a time when the field theory course is not being offered. I have been planning on using SPARK, which will be password protected. But I am also experimenting with Screencast. Here is a sample, from my test run in my E&M class. It is from the unit on the Foundations of E&M, in particular on the action principle for fields. (Note added 1/27/09: I have removed the link to Screencast because this is now out of date. You will be able to access the Screencast version of the first few QFT classes in subsequent posts.)

In Spring 2009, I will be teaching Quantum Field Theory I. The second semester course will be offered in Fall 2009. The Spring course will be designed for students of all areas, and will match on to our core graduate curriculum. The second semester will cover topics which, while still useful for all, are of particular interest for particle/nuclear/gravitational types.

I am going to ask that you choose your own book. I will not follow any one book in detail and there are many good books available. I have prepared a summary of many of the standard choices – you can find the summary here. If you want to chat about the options, feel free to stop by my office.

The recordings of the classes in the “Foundations” section are available on SPARK. Here is the link to the login page. You use your usual UMail user name and address for the login.

Here is a copy of the homework set #8 which is due on Wednesday Nov 12.

Note that Tuesday Nov 11 is a holiday – that is why the homework is due a day later than usual. Also, the Wednesday of that week is a Tuesday schedule, so that we will not have class that Wednesday.

The midterm exam will be on Wed. Oct 29 in the evening, (likely starting at 7:00). The final exam is scheduled for Tuesday Dec 16 from 1-4.