What is a good starting point for learning about quantum fields

LordCrom@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 59 points –

I went to college a long time ago. Since then the LHC verified the higgs boson. The higgs field and the higgs bubbles that separated quarks from antiquarks is something I've been looking at.

However I never took quantum mechanics and have little understanding of quantum fields. I would like to rectify that problem.

Can someone with knowledge give me a push in the right direction.... What books to start with, are there online lectures?

Thank you

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The book "Quantum field theory for the gifted amateur" is really good. It's helped me understand quantum fields a lot better, and I work with quantum mechanics every day.

What's the intended audience? Considering that you do Quantum mechanic daily, I assumed you studied physics and knew QED and QCD but forgot about it?

Got my master in theoretical physics 20 years ago, moved to experimental physics and now do engineering and applied physics , so I cannot anymore decipher my QCD notes

From its own cover,

It is written by experimental physicists and aimed to provide the interested amateur with a bridge from undergraduate physics to quantum field theory. The imagined reader is a gifted amateur possessing a curious and adaptable mind looking to be told an entertaining and intellectually stimulating story, but who will not feel patronized if a few mathematical niceties are spelled out in detail.

This might sound pretty casual, but it gets into all the math of it, with an aim at practical use.

Nice, I`ll check it out, feel somehow frustrated to have forgotten all these stuff