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7 - Quantum Field Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2021

Steven Weinberg
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
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Summary

Chapter 5 described quantum mechanics in the context of particles moving in a potential. This application of quantum mechanics led to great advances in the 1920s and 1930s in our understanding of atoms, molecules, and much else. But, starting around 1930 and increasingly since then, theoretical physicists have become aware of a deeper description of matter, in terms of fields. Just as Einstein and others had much earlier recognized that the energy and momentum of the electromagnetic field is packaged in bundles, the particles later called photons, so also there is an electron field whose energy and momentum is packaged in particles, observed as electrons, and likewise for every other sort of elementary particle. Indeed, in practice this is what we now mean by an elementary particle: it is the quantum of some field that appears as an ingredient in whatever seem to be the fundamental equations of physics at any stage in our progress.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Quantum Field Theory
  • Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Foundations of Modern Physics
  • Online publication: 22 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894845.008
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  • Quantum Field Theory
  • Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Foundations of Modern Physics
  • Online publication: 22 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894845.008
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Quantum Field Theory
  • Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Foundations of Modern Physics
  • Online publication: 22 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894845.008
Available formats
×