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The Theory and Applications of Instanton Calculations
About this book
Instantons, or pseudoparticles, are solutions to the equations of motion in classical field theories on a Euclidean spacetime. Instantons are found everywhere in quantum theories as they have many applications in quantum tunnelling. Diverse physical phenomena may be described through quantum tunnelling, for example: the Josephson effect, the decay of meta-stable nuclear states, band formation in tight binding models of crystalline solids, the structure of the gauge theory vacuum, confinement in 2+1 dimensions, and the decay of superheated or supercooled phases. Drawing inspiration from Sidney Coleman's Erice lectures, this volume provides an accessible, detailed introduction to instanton methods, with many applications, making it a valuable resource for graduate students in many areas of physics, from condensed matter, particle and nuclear physics, to string theory.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title
- Series page
- Title page
- Copyright information
- Table of contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Quantum Mechanics and the Path Integral
- 3 The Symmetric Double Well
- 4 Decay of a Meta-stable State
- 5 Quantum Field Theory and the Path Integral
- 6 Decay of the False Vacuum
- 7 Large Orders in Perturbation Theory
- 8 Quantum Electrodynamics in 1+1 Dimensions
- 9 The Polyakov Proof of Confinement
- 10 Monopole Pair Production
- 11 Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)
- 12 Instantons, Supersymmetry and Morse Theory
- Appendix A An Aside on O(4)
- Appendix B Asymptotic Analysis
- Bibliography
- Index