| TWO-DIMENSIONAL QFT (8 lectures) | Patrick Dorey | p.e.dorey@durham.ac.uk CM323 |
Quantum field theory is one of the most successful theories of modern theoretical physics yet it remains computationally difficult. It provides the framework for the Standard Model and yet calculating specific features of elementary particles (their mass spectrum, or their scattering properties) is hard. Surprisingly, there are special quantum field theories defined in two-dimensional space-time in which calculations of interesting quantities can be performed exactly. Moreover, although these special field theories are not directly of relevance to particle physics, at least not yet, they do have applications in condensed matter physics and some of the techniques devised to analyse them have proved to be useful in the AdS/CFT correspondence. The purpose of this short course is to introduce some of the ideas and techniques that are used to to study two-dimensional quantum field theories, to provide examples of their use, and to discuss briefly some open problems.
| Day | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 9:00 | OC218 |
| Wednesday | 9:00 | OC218 |
P.Dorey, Exact S-matrices, Eotvos school proceedings and hep-th/9810026
G.Mussardo, Off-critical statistical models: factorized scattering theories and bootstrap program, Phys.Rep.218 (1992) 215-379
H.Saleur, Lectures on Nonperturbative field theory and quantum impurity problems, Les Houches proceedings and cond-mat/9812110
F.H.L.Essler and R.M.Konik, Applications of Massive Integrable Quantum Field Theories to Problems in Condensed Matter Physics, I. Kogan Memorial Volume and cond-mat/0412421
See arXiv:0707.2082 and arXiv:0905.4702 for some recent discussions of tree-level S-matrix calculations in two dimensions.