Admission requirements
Course pre-requisites include having taken the equivalent of the Leiden B.Sc. courses on classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and classical electrodynamics. A working knowledge relativistic electrodynamics also strongly recommended.
Description
This course is a brief introduction to classical field theory, and can be viewed as a precursor to any course on quantum field theory where an intuitive grounding into the physical concept of fields will be provided. It will introduce common concepts used throughout theoretical physics in cosmology, elementary particle and condensed matter physics, centering renormalization group based thinking from the outset.
Topics:
Fields as universal description of many body systems at low energies;
Symmetries and conservation laws;
Noether's theorem;
Renormalization and low energy effective actions;
States of matter and phase transitions.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to understand the basics of classical field theory, be able to compute conserved currents from various global symmetries, compute energy momentum tensors for classical fields, and calculate tree level effective actions and understand their physical significance as low energy descriptions of a system with a certain number of degrees of freedom subject to certain symmetry restrictions.
Schedule
The timetables are available through My Timetable (see the button in the upper right corner).
Teaching method
Blackboard lectures, supplemented with weekly work sessions.
For more information see Brightspace
Assesment method
The final grade will be determined as follows:
- Final exam (100%)
Resit, review & feedback
Examinations are held twice during the academic year for each component offered in that academic year. Midterm tests cannot be retaken. The Board of Examiners determines the manner of resit for practical assignments.
For review and feedback, see Brightspace.
Reading list
Lecture notes will be provided. Additional recommended reading includes:
K. Huang: Quantum Field Theory: From Operators to Path Integrals, Wiley
D. Tong’s Quantum Field Theory lecture notes
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap (button in upper right corner) is mandatory. General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer(s) (listed in the right information bar).
Remarks
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.