Quantum Field Theory
Table of Contents
- 1. Particle Physics
- 2. Notation
- 3. Quantum Field
- 4. Operators
- 5. Fock Space
- 6. Propagator
- 7. LSZ Theorem
- 8. Path Integral
- 9. Source Function
- 10. Ultraviolet Divergence
- 11. Free Fields
- 12. Cross Section
- 13. Decay Rate
- 14. Quantum Electrodynamics
- 15. Standard Model
- 16. References
1. Particle Physics
1.1. Interaction
In particle physics, it is impossible for two particle to merge into one, or one split into two without changing their internal energy. The conservation of energy and momentum is much more enforcing at this scale.
Annihilation \(e^- + e^+ \to \gamma\) is not allowed, only \(e^+ + e^- \to 2\gamma\).
Bremsstrahlung or Cherenkov \(e^- \to e^- + \gamma\) is not allowed, only \(e^- + X \to e^- + X + \gamma\)
1.2. Properties
1.2.1. Baryon Number
\[ B := \frac{1}{3} (N_q - N_{\bar{q}}) \] where \(N_q\) and \(N_{\bar{q}}\) are the number of quarks and antiquarks.
Since for proton and neutrons \(B_p = B_n = 1\), the baryon number of nucleus is given by: \[ B = A = Z + N. \]
In standard model, baryon number \(B\) and lepton number \(L\) are preserved perturbatively, but nonperturbative electroweak process can violate the conservation of baryon number, while conserving \(B - L\).
1.2.2. Lepton Number
\[ L = N_\mathrm{\ell} - N_{\bar{\mathrm{\ell}}}. \]
1.2.3. Charm
\[ C = N_\mathrm{c} - N_{\bar{\mathrm{c}}}. \]
1.2.4. Strangeness
\[ S = -(N_\mathrm{s} - N_{\bar{\mathrm{s}}}). \]
The sign convention is to match the electric charge of the quark.
1.2.5. Topness
\[ T = N_\mathrm{t} - N_{\bar{\mathrm{t}}} \]
1.2.6. Bottomness
\[ B' = -(N_\mathrm{b} - N_{\bar{\mathrm{b}}}). \]
1.2.7. Isospin
- Strong Isospin, Hadronic Isospin, Isobaric Spin, Isotopic Spin
Isospin \(\mathbf{I}\) is a three dimensional vector quantity that SU(2) act on. The isospin is described by the total isospin \(I\) and its third component (z) \(I_3\).
Up quark and down quark has 1/2 isospin, with opposite sign in the third component 1/2 for up, -1/2 for down. All other quarks and leptons does not have (strong) isospin. Antiparticles have the opposite isospin. For a general hadron, \[ I_3 = \frac{1}{2} (N_u - N_d). \]
This quantity is defined due to the similarity between categorization of hadron and multi-spin system.
1.2.8. Weak Isospin
Three dimensional vector quantity with total weak isopin \(T\) and its third component \(T_3\).
Left-chiral up, charm, top quarks, and left-chiral neutrinos have 1/2 isospin. Left-chiral down, strange, bottom quarks, and left-chiral electron, muon, tauon have -1/2 isospin. W bosons have either +1, -1, or 0 isospin, called W⁺, W⁻, W⁰ respectively. All above right-chiral fermions have 0 weak isospin. Antiparticles have the opposite isospin.
1.2.9. Hyperchage
\[ Y = B + S - \frac{C - B' + T'}{3} \] where \(B\) is baryon number, \(S\) is strangeness,
1.2.10. Weak Hypercharge
- \(Y_W\)
Quarks and gluon have hypercharge of \(1/3\). Leptons have hypercharge of \(-1\). Antiparticles have the opposite hypercharge.
This quantity is the charge of a particle in electroweak field.
1.2.11. Electric Charge
- \(Q = I_3 + \frac{1}{2}Y = T_3 + \frac{1}{2}Y_W\)
Photon can be exchanged as long as particles have electric charge. A photon does not contain any other quantities.
1.2.12. Color Charge
Color charge only matters for strong interaction because only gluon and quarks have it. Exchange of gluon transfers color charges between quarks.
1.3. Particles
All particles, except anyon, are either fermion or boson. Fermions are described by spinor field, while bosons are described by integer-ranked tensor field: scalar, vector, matrix.
Fermion
- Hadron
- Meson: contain even number of quarks
- Baryon: contain odd number of quarks. e.g. proton, neutron
- Lepton: electron, neutrino
Boson
- Photon
- Gluon
- W and Z boson
- Higgs boson
Due to the color confinement principle, a hadron must exists in its color singlet state by itself, and the singlet irrep of SU(3) can only exists in some combination of quarks and antiquarks.
- Quark + antiquark meson: \(\mathbf{3} \otimes \bar{\mathbf{3}} = \mathbf{1} \oplus \mathbf{8}\)
- Three quarks / Three antiquark baryon: \(\mathbf{3} \otimes \mathbf{3} \otimes \mathbf{3} = \mathbf{1} \oplus \mathbf{8}\oplus \mathbf{8} \oplus \mathbf{10}.\)
Baryon as a fermion must have antisymmetric wavefunction \[ \Psi = \Psi_{\rm color}\Psi_{\rm space}\Psi_{\rm flavor}\Psi_{\rm spin}, \] and for ground state with anrisymmetric color singlet state and symmetric spactial component, the symmetry of flavor and spin must be the same. This forbids certain combination of spin and flavor:
- Spin 1/2 (antisymmetric) + sss (symmetric) Omega baryon.
- Spin 1/2 (antisymmetric) + uuu or ddd (symmetric)
Name of hadron can differ based on its isospin (both I and I₃), charm, strangeness, topness, bottomness, total angular momentum, P parity, C parity. At ground state the orbital angular momentum is zero and the total angular momentum becomes equal to the total spin angular momentum.
In early days of particle physics around 1961, Murray Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne'eman independently proposed the diagram for organizing different particles called Eightfold way, without the knowledge of quark model. They plotted each particles based on two axes: strangeness and charge. The axes can be reinterpreted as hypercharge and isospin
The use of isospin is made natural when looking at the I-I₃ diagram:
which looks similar to the possible states of spin-0, spin-1/2, spin-1, and spin-3/2
particle.
1.3.1. Eta Meson
\[ \begin{pmatrix} \eta \\ \eta' \end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix} \cos \theta_P & -\sin \theta_P \\ \sin \theta_P & \cos \theta_P \end{pmatrix} \begin{pmatrix} \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}(\mathrm{u}\bar{\mathrm{u}} + \mathrm{d}\bar{\mathrm{d}} + \mathrm{s}\bar{\mathrm{s}}) \\ \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}(\mathrm{u}\bar{\mathrm{u}} + \mathrm{d}\bar{\mathrm{d}} - 2\mathrm{s}\bar{\mathrm{s}}) \end{pmatrix} \]
π⁰, η, η' are three mutually orthogoanl states at the center of pseudo-scalar nonet of mesons.
1.4. Flavor Symmetry
Three flavors (or generations) of fermions form flavor symmetry of SU(3), which is then broken by the unequal Yukawa coupling.
2. Notation
There are no definite standard for quantum field theory. These are the notation I will use in this document.
- \( \mathbf{x} \) spacial position
- \( x \) four-position
- \( \mathbf{k} \) spacial wave vector
- \( k \) four-wave vector
Let us also suppress \( \hbar \) during the calculation, since they can always be recovered by dimensional analysis.
3. Quantum Field
- \( \ket{\phi} \)
A quantum state with infinite degree of freedom, one for each point in space. Note that time is not considered here.
3.1. Schrödinger Picture and Heisenberg Picture
In Schrödinger picture the state evolves while the operator is fixed: \[ \hat{x}, \hat{p}, \quad \ket{\psi(\mathbf{x})}(t) = e^{-i\hat{H}t/\hbar}\ket{\psi(\mathbf{x})}. \]
While in Heisenberg picture the operator evolves and the state remain fixed: \[ \hat{x}(t) = e^{i\hat{H}t/\hbar}\hat{x}e^{-i\hat{H}t/\hbar}, \hat{p}(t) =e^{i\hat{H}t/\hbar}\hat{p}e^{-i\hat{H}t/\hbar}, \quad\ket{\psi(\mathbf{x})}. \] The operator "predict" the future state from the current state.
It is easy to see why Heisenberg picture is preferred in quantum field theory, when you try to express the state of a quantum field: \[ \hat{\phi}(\mathbf{x}), \quad \ket{\psi(\phi)}(t) = e^{-i\hat{H}t/\hbar}\ket{\psi(\phi)}. \] Every field variable operator at each point \( \mathbf{x} \) is fixed in time, and the wave function defined over the space of every possible field evolves. It is clear that we cannot evolve this beast directly, so we choose get around this with \[ \hat{\phi}(\mathbf{x}, t) = e^{i\hat{H}t/\hbar}\hat{\phi}(\mathbf{x})e^{-i\hat{H}t/\hbar}, \quad \ket{\psi(\phi)}. \]
4. Operators
We will even remove the ◌̂ for conciseness, whenever it is clear.
4.1. Per Position
- Field operator: \( \phi(x) \).
- Canonical momentum operator: \( \Pi(x) \).
- Creation and annihilation operators: \( a^{\dagger}(\mathbf{x}), a(\mathbf{x}). \)
- They are defined by the \( \phi(\mathbf{x}, 0), \Pi(\mathbf{x}, 0) \), so they are constant operators by definition.
- The Lagrangian density operator \( \mathcal{L} \) and Hamiltonian density operator: \( \mathcal{H} \).
4.2. Per Momentum
Operators that acts only on a single mode, which can be obtained by the Fourier transform of the operators per position.
5. Fock Space
Fock space is a finite sum of Hilbert space \( \mathcal{H}_n \) of \( n \) particle systems: \[ \mathcal{H} := \ket{0} \oplus \mathcal{H}_1 \oplus \mathcal{H}_2 \oplus \cdots \oplus \mathcal{H}_m. \]
5.1. State
The creation operator excite the vacuum state with a plane wave that represent a single particle: \[ \ket{\mathbf{k}} := a^{\dagger}(\mathbf{k})\ket{0}. \] They are normalized to satisfy \[ \braket{\mathbf{k}}{\mathbf{k}'} = (2\pi)^3 \delta^{(3)}(\mathbf{k} - \mathbf{k}'). \]
However, these are not Lorentz covariant, so we add additional factor: \[ \ket{k} := \sqrt{2\omega_{\mathbf{k}}} \ket{\mathbf{k}}. \] Now with the normalization given by \[ \braket{k}{k'} = 2\omega_{\mathbf{k}} (2\pi)^3\delta^{(3)}(\mathbf{k} - \mathbf{k}'), \] and the state transforms nicely: \[ U_{\Lambda}\ket{k} = \ket{\Lambda k}. \] (p set 3)
In general, a single-particle state is given by: \[ \ket{\psi} = \int \frac{\dd[3]{\mathbf{k}}}{(2\pi)^3} f(\mathbf{k}) \ket{k}, \] and many-particle state like: \[ \ket{\phi} = \int \frac{\dd[3]{\mathbf{k}_1}}{(2\pi)^3}\frac{\dd[3]{\mathbf{k}_2}}{(2\pi)^3} \cdots \frac{\dd[3]{\mathbf{k}_n}}{(2\pi)^3} f(\mathbf{k}_1, \mathbf{k}_2, \dots, \mathbf{k}_n) \ket{k_1, k_2, \dots, k_n}. \]
6. Propagator
In non-relativistic quantum mechanics, the propagator in Heisenberg picture is given by: \[ G(x, x') := \braket{\mathbf{x}, t}{\mathbf{x}', t'} \] where \( \ket{\mathbf{x}, t} \) is the eigenvector of the position operator \( \hat{\mathbf{x}}(t)\) at time \( t \) with eigenvalue of \( \mathbf{x} \). So, \( \ket{\mathbf{x}, t} \) is the state in which after time \( t \), the amplitude converges at position \( \mathbf{x} \).
In quantum field theory, there is no position operator. We use the analog of the position eigenstate \[ \ket{x} := \phi(x)\ket{0}, \] and the propagator can be given in various ways:
\begin{align*} G_R(x,x') &:= \theta(t-t')\ev{[\phi(x),\phi(x')]}{0}, \\ G_A(x,x') &:= -\theta(t'-t)\ev{[\phi(x'),\phi(x)]}{0}, \\ G_+(x,x') &:= \ev{\phi(x)\phi(x')}{0}, \\ G_-(x,x') &:= \ev{\phi(x')\phi(x)}{0}, \\ G_F(x,x') &:= \theta(t-t')\ev{\phi(x)\phi(x')}{0} + \theta(t'-t)\ev{\phi(x')\phi(x)}{0}. \end{align*}where \( \theta \) is the unit step function. \( G_F \) is called the Feynman green function, or time-ordered correlation function, \( G_R \) the retarded function, \( G_A \) the advanced function.
Due to the spacetime translation symmetry and Lorentz invariance of the vacuum state, \( G \) can be fully described by a function of single variable \( \tilde{G}( (x-x')^2) \): the spacetime distance.
For the real scalar field, \( G \) can be written explicitly by substituting \( \phi(x) \) in:
\begin{align*} G_+(x,x') &= \int \frac{\dd[3]{\mathbf{k}}}{(2\pi)^3} \frac{1}{2\omega_{\mathbf{k}}} e^{-i\omega_{\mathbf{k}}(t-t') + i\mathbf{k}\vdot (\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x}')} \\ &= \int \frac{\dd[4]{k}}{(2\pi)^4}2\pi\, \theta(k^0)\, \delta(k^2 + m^2)\, e^{ik\cdot (x-x')}. \end{align*}Since the Fourier transform is defined in the same form: \[ G(k) := \int \dd[4]{x} G(x) e^{-ik\cdot x},\quad G(x - x') = \int \frac{\dd[4]{k}}{(2\pi)^4} G(k) e^{ik\cdot (x - x')}, \] we find that \[ G_+(k) = 2\pi\, \theta(k^0)\, \delta(k^2 + m^2). \]
From the Fourier transform of the operator equation (with mostly minus convention) \[ (-\partial_{\mu}\partial^{\mu} + m^2)G(x, x') = i\delta^{(4)}(x-x') \] where partial derivative is with respect to \( x \), we get: \[ (k^2 + m^2)G(k) = -i \implies G(k) = \frac{-i}{k^2 + m^2}. \] When we try to recover the original function, we find singularity at \( \omega = \pm\omega_{\mathbf{k}} \). This is resolved by going around the poles in the complex domain with a contour integral. Depending on the choice of detour, upper or lower half plane, we get different propagator. When upper, upper is chosen, we get \( G_R \), for lower, lower we get \( G_A \), and lower, upper we get \( G_F \).
This propagator gives complete information about the n-point correlation function: \[ G(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n) := \ev{ \mathrm{T}\phi(x_1)\phi(x_2)\cdots \phi(x_n)}{0}. \] where \( \mathrm{T} \) is the time-ordering that orders the operators next to it with respect to time.
The n-point function can be expressed in terms of sums of products of correlation function.
7. LSZ Theorem
7.1. S-Matrix
S-matrix is an infinite matrix that give information about which interaction is happening at which rate. The \( S_{\alpha\beta} \) entry is given by: \[ S_{\alpha\beta} = \lim_{\begin{smallmatrix}t \to \infty \\ t' \to -\infty \end{smallmatrix}}\mel{\beta}{e^{-i\hat{H}(t - t')/\hbar}}{\alpha}. \] This is the transition amplitude from state \( \alpha \) at \( t = -\infty \) to state \( \beta \) at \( t = \infty \), with the assumption that
- \( \alpha \) and \( \beta \) are localized states in which each particle can be discerned,
- the localized wave packets are infinitely far apart.
Each state is given as a set of momentums. When there is no interaction S-matrix would be an identity. Assuming small interaction, we can write: \[ S_{\alpha\beta} = \delta_{\alpha\beta} + iT_{\alpha\beta}. \] From energy-momentum conservation, we can express \( T_{\alpha\beta} \) as: \[ T_{\alpha\beta} = (2\pi)^4 \delta^{(4)}(p_{\alpha} - p_{\beta}) M_{\alpha\to \beta} \] where \( p_{\alpha}, p_{\beta} \) are the total four-momentum of each state, and \( M_{\alpha\to\beta} \) is called the scattering amplitude.
7.2. Statement
The scattering amplitude \( M_{\alpha\to\beta} \) can be obtained from time-ordered correlation function: \[ M_{\alpha\to\beta} = \ev{\mathrm{T}\phi(x_1) \cdots \phi(x_n)}{\Omega} \] where \( \mathrm{T} \) is the time-ordering that means the operator next to them has to be reordered with respect to time, and \( \ket{\Omega} \) is the vacuum state of non-free Lagrangian.
8. Path Integral
In one dimensional case, the transition amplitude \[ \mel{x_b}{e^{-i\hat{H}t/\hbar}}{x_a} \] is generally not easy to calculate, but when we consider each small timestep \( \Delta t \) separately,
\begin{align*} \mel{x_b}{e^{-i\hat{H}t}}{x_a} &= \mel{x_b}{e^{-i\hat{H}\Delta t}\cdots e^{-i\hat{H}\Delta t}}{x_a} \\ & = \int \dd{x_1}\dd{x_2}\cdots \dd{x_{n-1}} \mel{x_b}{e^{-i\hat{H}\Delta t}}{x_{n-1}}\mel{x_{n-1}}{e^{-i\hat{H}\Delta t}}{x_{n-2}}\cdots \mel{x_1}{e^{-i\hat{H}\Delta t}}{x_a} \end{align*}in each step the exponential is separated with the help of Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula: \[ \mel{x_{i+1}}{e^{-i \Delta t ( \hat{p}^2/2m + V(\hat{x}) )}}{x_i} = \mel{x_{i+1}}{e^{-i \Delta t \hat{p}^2/2m} e^{-i\Delta t V(\hat{x}) }}{x_i} + O(\Delta t^2). \] This can be further simplified to: \[ \mel{x_{i+1}}{e^{-i \Delta t \hat{p}^2/2m} e^{-i\Delta t V(\hat{x}) }}{x_i} \stackrel{\Delta t\to 0}{\to} \sqrt{\frac{m}{2\pi \hbar i \Delta t}} e^{i\Delta t L(x, \dot{x})|_{t_i}/\hbar}. \]
The resulting integral is called the path integral: \[ \int_{x(t_a) = x_a}^{x(t_b) = x_b} \mathcal{D}x\, e^{i\int_{t_i}^{t_f} \dd{t} L(x, \dot{x})} :=\lim_{n\to \infty} \left( \frac{m}{2\pi \hbar i \Delta t} \above right)^{\frac{n}{2}} \int \dd{x_1}\dd{x_2}\cdots \dd{x_{n-1}} \exp \left( i\Delta t L \left(x_{n-1}, \frac{x_b - x_{n-1}}{\Delta t} \above right) \big/\hbar\above right)\cdots \exp \left( i\Delta t L \left(x_i, \frac{x_{i+1} - x_i}{\Delta t} \above right) \big/\hbar\above right)\cdots \exp \left( i\Delta t L \left(x_a, \frac{x_{1} - x_a}{\Delta t} \above right) \big/\hbar\above right). \] This integral can be reconceptualized into integrating over all possible path \( x(t) \) that strats \( x_a \) and ends at \( x_b \), and more succictly written as: \[ \int_{x_a}^{x_b} \mathcal{D}x\, e^{iS[x]}. \]
For a system with more degrees of freedom, we simply have to account for every degree of freedom at each timestep. A quantum field has uncountably infinite degrees of freedom but it is not much different conceptually: \[ \int_{\phi(\mathbf{x}, t_a) = \phi_a(\mathbf{x})}^{\phi(\mathbf{x}, t_b) = \phi_b(\mathbf{x})} \mathcal{D} \phi\, e^{i \int_{t_a}^{t_b} L(\phi, \dot{\phi})} = \int_{\phi_a}^{\phi_b} \mathcal{D}\phi\, e^{iS[\phi]}. \] Notice each path is a evolution of field \( \phi(\mathbf{x}, t) \) from configuration \( \phi_a \) to \( \phi_b \).
9. Source Function
- Generating Functional
We introduce the source term into the path integral: \[ Z[J] := \int \mathcal{D}\phi\, e^{i\int \dd[4]{x} (\mathcal{L} + J\phi)} \] where \( J \) is a function of spacetime \( J(x) \) called source function.
With the definition of functional derivative: \[ \frac{\delta J(t_b)}{\delta J(t_a)} := \delta(t_b - t_a) \] we can express the n-point correlation function in terms of the derivative of \( Z[J] \): \[ G(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n) = \frac{1}{i^nZ_0} \frac{\delta^n Z[J]}{\delta J(x_1) \delta J(x_2) \cdots \delta J(x_n)} \] where \( Z_0 := Z[0] \).
This derivative treats each value of \( J \) at a spacetime coordinate \( x_i \) as an independent variable.
\( Z[J] \) is called the generating functional, because the coefficients of its power series expansion are the correlation functions: \[ Z[J] = Z_0 \left[ i\sum_{x_1} \frac{1}{i Z_0}\frac{\delta Z[J]}{\delta J(x_1)}J(x_1) + i^2 \sum_{x_1, x_2} \frac{1}{i^2 Z_0}\frac{\delta^2 Z[J]}{\delta J(x_1) \delta J(x_2)} J(x_1) J(x_2) + \cdots \above right] \]
10. Ultraviolet Divergence
There are two kinds of divergence in quantum field theory: ultraviolet and infrared.
The infrared divergence is easy to deal with. It happens due to the fact that the theory is assuming infinite space which is not realistic. The contribution from extreme distances adds up and produce infinity. Regularization of dividing out the volumn removes this infinity.
Ultraviolet divergence happens due to the failure of the theory in modeling the reality. In particular, the terms involving unrealistic extreme energies eventually add up and produce infinity.
11. Free Fields
11.1. Klein-Gorden Equation
- Scalar Free Field
The Klein-Gordon Lagrangian for a complex scalar (spin-0) field \( \phi \) is \[ \mathcal{L} = \partial^{\mu}\phi \partial_{\mu}\phi^* - m^2\phi^* \phi \] in mostly positive metric.
This is the simplest Lagrangian that is
- local: only in terms of local quantities such as \( \phi, \partial_{\mu}\phi \),
- first order derivative in time (from experience),
- Lorentz invariant.
Using the natural units, the classical equation of motion can be written as: \[ (\partial^{\mu}\partial_{\mu} + m^2)\phi = 0. \]
The solution can be easily found using the correpondence between the algebra of classical quantities and the algebra of observables within linear order: \[ \phi(x) = \int \frac{\dd[3]{\mathbf{k}}}{(2\pi)^3} \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\omega_{\mathbf{k}}}} \left(a(\mathbf{k}) e^{-i\omega_{\mathbf{k}}t + i\mathbf{k}\vdot \mathbf{x}} + a^{\dagger}(\mathbf{k}) e^{i\omega_{\mathbf{k}}t - i\mathbf{k}\vdot \mathbf{x}}\above right). \] This operator will detect and evolve each \( \mathbf{k} \) eigenstate of the initial state, and find the field variable at \( x \).
11.2. Dirac Equation
- Spinor Free Field
11.2.1. Derivation
For a spin-1/2 field \( \psi \), \[ (i\hbar \gamma^\mu \partial_\mu + mc)\psi = 0. \]
The gamma matrices \( \gamma^{\mu} \) are defined to satisfy \[ \{\gamma^\mu, \gamma^\nu\} = 2\eta^{\mu\nu}. \]
11.2.2. Gamma Matrices
11.2.2.1. Representations
There are infinite number of possible basis we can choose within the spinor space.
Dirac representation Dirac Basis or Mass Basis
\( \gamma^\mu \) takes the form of following 4 by 4 complex matrices:
\begin{align*} \gamma^0 = \begin{pmatrix} \sigma_t & 0 \\ 0 & -\sigma_t \end{pmatrix},\quad& \gamma^1 = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & \sigma_x \\ -\sigma_x & 0 \end{pmatrix} \\ \gamma^2 = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & \sigma_y \\ -\sigma_y & 0 \end{pmatrix},\quad& \gamma^4 = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & \sigma_z \\ -\sigma_z & 0 \end{pmatrix}. \end{align*}And the dirac spinor \( \psi \) has a four complex components, each representing particle spin-up and spin-down, and anti-particle spin-up and spin-down.
Chiral Representation
\begin{align*} \gamma^0 = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & \sigma_t \\ -\sigma_t & 0 \end{pmatrix},\quad& \gamma^1 = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & \sigma_x \\ -\sigma_x & 0 \end{pmatrix} \\ \gamma^2 = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & \sigma_y \\ -\sigma_y & 0 \end{pmatrix},\quad& \gamma^4 = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & \sigma_z \\ -\sigma_z & 0 \end{pmatrix} \end{align*}12. Cross Section
13. Decay Rate
\[ \Gamma \]
13.1. Time Constant
\[ \tau = \frac{1}{\Gamma}. \]
13.2. Alpha Decay
It is a probabilistic process of tunneling out of the potential well of the strong force.
The element above right the iron is technically unstable, but the energy of the alpha particle within the neucleus is so small that the probalitity of tunneling is minute compared to the highly unstable ones.
14. Quantum Electrodynamics
- QED
15. Standard Model
The standard model lagrangian (density) is given as follows: \[ \mathcal{L}_{\rm SM} = \mathcal{L}_{\rm fermion} + \mathcal{L}_{\rm gauge} + \mathcal{L}_{\rm Higgs} + \mathcal{L}_{\rm Yukawa} \] where \(\mathcal{L}_{\rm fermion} + \mathcal{L}_{\rm gauge}\) is the gauge-invariant Lagrangian of spinors including quarks and leptons, \(\mathcal{L}_{\rm Higgs} + \mathcal{L}_{\rm Yukawa}\) is the scalar field Lagrangian of Higgs boson and its interaction with fermions.
15.1. Gauge-Invariant Lagrangian
where \(j\) enumerates the flavors (or generations), \(A\) enumerates the generators of SU(3), \(a\) enumerators the generators of SU(2), \[ q_\mathrm{L} = \begin{pmatrix} u_\mathrm{L} \\ d_\mathrm{L} \end{pmatrix} \] is doublet of left-handed Weyl spinors of up quark \(u_\mathrm{L}\) and down quark \(d_\mathrm{L}\) (up to flavor), \[ \ell_\mathrm{L} = \begin{pmatrix} \nu_\mathrm{L} \\ e_\mathrm{L} \end{pmatrix} \] is doublet of left-handed Weyl spinors of neutrino \(\nu_\mathrm{L}\) and electron \(e_\mathrm{L}\) (up to flavor), \(u_\mathrm{R}, d_\mathrm{R}, \nu_\mathrm{R}, e_\mathrm{R}\) are the singlets of above right-handed Weyl spinor for respective particles, \(\gamma^{\mu}\) is gamma matrices, \(D_{\mu}\) is the covariant derivative operator given by described separately, \(B_{\mu\nu}\) is the field strength tensor of photon (before electroweak symmetry breaking) field given by: \[ B_{\mu\nu} = \partial_{\mu}B_{\nu} - \partial_{\nu}B_{\mu}, \] \(W_{\mu\nu}^a\) are the field strength tensors of W boson (before electroweak symmetry breaking) fields \(W_{\mu}^a\) given by: \[ W^a_{\mu\nu} = \partial_{\mu}W^a_{\nu} - \partial_{\nu}W^a_{\mu} + g \epsilon^{abc}W^{b}_{\mu}W^{c}_{\nu}, \] \(G^A_{\mu\nu}\) are the field strength tensors of gluon fields \(G_{\mu}^A\) given by: \[ G^A_{\mu\nu} = \partial_{\mu}G^A_{\nu} - \partial_{\nu}G^A_{\mu} + g_s f^{ABC}G^B_{\mu}G^C_{\nu}. \]
15.1.1. Covariant Derivative
\[ D_{\mu} = \partial_{\mu} - ig'YB_{\mu} - \sum_{a=1,2,3} igT^aW^a_{\mu} - \sum_{A=1,\dots,8}ig_s t^AG^A_{\mu} \] where \(g'\) is the U(1) coupling constant, \(Y\) is the hypercharge, \(g\) is the SU(2) coupling constant, \(T^a\) are the generators of SU(2), \(g_s\) is the SU(3) coupling constant, \(t^A\) is the generators of SU(3),
15.2. Higgs Lagrangian
where \(i,j\) enumerates the flavors, \(a,b\) enumerates the components of SU(2), \[ h = \begin{pmatrix} h_1 \\ h_2 end{pmatrix} \] is doublet of complex scalar fields, \(\lambda\) is a scalar parameter, \(v\) is the vacuum expectation value of Higgs field, \(y_{\mathrm{u}}, y_{\mathrm{d}}, y_{\mathrm{e}}\) are the Yukawa coupling matrices that couples different generations, \(\psi^{\mathsf{c}} := C \bar{\psi}^{\mathsf{T}}\) is the charge conjugate of Weyl spinor.
15.3. Full Expanded Form
16. References
- The Super Awesome Standard Model diagram Explained - YouTube
- The hypercharge and isospin here means weak hypercharge and weak isospin
- List of baryons - Wikipedia
- List of mesons - Wikipedia
- MIT 8.323 Relativistic Quantum Field Theory I, Spring 2023 - YouTube
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