Quantum Field Theory Seminar

Anton Borissov, Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Waterloo

“The Klein-Gordon Field”

The overarching goal of this (multi-term, hopefully) learning seminar is to gain some un- derstanding of the mathematics in string theory, in particular a mysterious geometric duality known as mirror symmetry, without losing sight of the underlying physics. To that end, it probably is a good idea to first learn some quantum field theory, which will be the focus of the seminar this term. In the first few weeks, we shall discuss the rudiments of QFT from a calculational standpoint, following Peskin and Schroeder, with the goal of computing Feynman diagrams for simple interacting theories. This talk, in particular, will review aspects of classi- cal field theory and the free Klein-Gordon field, after which it will be put through a process known as quantization, better known as ”make everything in sight into an operator”. We will discuss some physical and psychological ramifications of this process.

MC 5403

**Please note change of time**