The fundamental building blocks of matter known today—quarks and leptons—and the strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions between them are described with extraordinary success by the standard model of particle physics. This popular textbook introduces quantum field theory as the theoretical basis of the standard model and covers the fundamentals of the standard model. The selection of topics is based on the content of a two-semester course in a master’s program. The quantization of fields is primarily addressed using the path integral formalism.The second, updated edition delves deeper into the topics of Dyson-Schwinger equations, Majorana fermions, and Ward identities, and offers optimal assessment of learning objectives through numerous new exercises and questions.
