Non-Perturbative Field Theory

• Main Author: Frishman, Yitzhak (auth)
• Other Authors: Sonnenschein, Jacob (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2010
• Subjects: Nuclear physics; non-perturbative methods; 2D field theory; massless free scalar field; conformal field theory; invariant; affine current algebras; Wess-Zumino-Witten model; Coset model; solitons; 2D integrable models; bosonization; large N limit of 2D models; 2D non-perturbative gauge dynamics; bosonized gauge theories; t'Hooft solution; mesonic spectrum; baryonic spectrum; multiflavour QCD2; strong coupling limit; confinement; screening; coset models and BRST quantization; generalized Yang Mills theory; conformal invariance in 4D field theories; 4D gauge dynamics; large N methods in QCD4; skyrmions; magnetic monopoles; instantons of QCD
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

Providing a new perspective on quantum field theory, this book gives a pedagogical exposition of non-perturbative methods in relativistic quantum field theory and introduces the reader to modern research in theoretical physics. After describing non-perturbative methods in detail, it uses these methods to explore two-dimensional and four-dimensional gauge dynamics. The book concludes with a summary emphasizing the interplay between two- and four-dimensional gauge theories. Aimed at graduate students and researchers, this book covers topics from two-dimensional conformal symmetry, affine Lie algebras, solitons, integrable models, bosonization, and 't Hooft model, to four-dimensional conformal invariance, integrability, large N expansion, Skyrme model, monopoles and instantons. Applications, first to simple field theories and gauge dynamics in two dimensions, and then to gauge theories in four dimensions and quantum chromodynamics in particular, are thoroughly described.