Volume 1 of this revised and updated edition provides an accessible and practical introduction to the first gauge theory included in the Standard Model of particle physics: quantum electrodynamics (QED).

The book includes self-contained presentations of electromagnetism as a gauge theory as well as relativistic quantum mechanics. It provides a unique elementary introduction to quantum field theory, establishing the essentials of the formal and conceptual framework upon which the subsequent development of the three gauge theories is based. The text also describes tree-level calculations of physical processes in QED and introduces ideas of renormalization in the context of one-loop radiative corrections for QED.

New to the Fourth Edition

• New chapter on Lorentz transformations and discrete symmetries in relativistic quantum mechanics, with physical applications
• Introduction of Majorana fermions at an early stage, making the material suitable for a first course in relativistic quantum mechanics
• Discrete symmetries in quantum field theory
• Updates on nucleon structure functions and the status of QED

The authors discuss the main conceptual points of the theory, detail many practical calculations of physical quantities from first principles, and compare these quantitative predictions with experimental results, helping readers improve both their calculation skills and physical insight.

Ian J.R. Aitchison is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a visiting scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has previously held research positions at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Saclay, and the University of Cambridge. He was a visiting professor at the University of Rochester and the University of Washington, and a scientific associate at CERN. Dr. Aitchison has published over 90 scientific papers mainly on hadronic physics and quantum field theory. He is the author of Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, An Informal Introduction to Gauge Field Theories, and Supersymmetry in Particle Physics and joint editor of two other books.

Anthony J.G. Hey is Vice President of Microsoft Research Connections, where he is responsible for the worldwide external research and technical computing strategy across Microsoft Corporation. A fellow of the U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering, Dr. Hey was previously the director of the U.K. e-Science Initiative and the head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science and dean of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Southampton. His research interests encompass parallel programming for parallel systems built from mainstream commodity components. With Jack Dongarra, Rolf Hempel, and David Walker, he wrote the first draft of a specification for a new message-passing standard called MPI. This initiated the process that led to the successful MPI standard of today.