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Lecture

EM Field: Discrete Symmetries

In course

PHYS-432: Quantum field theory II

The goal of the course is to introduce relativistic quantum field theory as the conceptual and mathematical framework describing fundamental interactions such as Quantum Electrodynamics. ...

Description

This lecture covers the topic of EM Field and Discrete Symmetries, discussing concepts such as canonical quantization, Lorentz transformations, and completeness. The instructor explains the normalization and completeness of the field, emphasizing the importance of symmetries in quantum field theory.

Instructors (2)

Riccardo Rattazzi

Riccardo Rattazzi was born in Novara (Italy) in 1964. He studied physics at the University of Pisa, where he received the Laurea cum laude in 1987, and at the Scuola Normale Superiore where he received the Diploma in Scienze and carried out graduate research in theoretical physics. After having been a post-doctoral research associate at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, at Rutgers University and at CERN, in 1998 Riccardo obtained a permanent research position at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Pisa. From 2001 to 2006 he was a staff member at the Theory Division of CERN. In 2006 he was appointed professor of physics at EPFL.

Brando Bellazzini

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Electromagnetic field

An electromagnetic field (also EM field or EMF) is a classical (i.e. non-quantum) field produced by moving electric charges. It is the field described by classical electrodynamics (a classical field theory) and is the classical counterpart to the quantized electromagnetic field tensor in quantum electrodynamics (a quantum field theory). The electromagnetic field propagates at the speed of light (in fact, this field can be identified as light) and interacts with charges and currents.

Mathematical descriptions of the electromagnetic field

There are various mathematical descriptions of the electromagnetic field that are used in the study of electromagnetism, one of the four fundamental interactions of nature. In this article, several approaches are discussed, although the equations are in terms of electric and magnetic fields, potentials, and charges with currents, generally speaking. Classical electromagnetism The most common description of the electromagnetic field uses two three-dimensional vector fields called the electric field and the magnetic field.

Electromagnetic tensor

In electromagnetism, the electromagnetic tensor or electromagnetic field tensor (sometimes called the field strength tensor, Faraday tensor or Maxwell bivector) is a mathematical object that describes the electromagnetic field in spacetime. The field tensor was first used after the four-dimensional tensor formulation of special relativity was introduced by Hermann Minkowski. The tensor allows related physical laws to be written very concisely, and allows for the quantization of the electromagnetic field by Lagrangian formulation described below.

Lorentz transformation

In physics, the Lorentz transformations are a six-parameter family of linear transformations from a coordinate frame in spacetime to another frame that moves at a constant velocity relative to the former. The respective inverse transformation is then parameterized by the negative of this velocity. The transformations are named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz.

History of Lorentz transformations

The history of Lorentz transformations comprises the development of linear transformations forming the Lorentz group or Poincaré group preserving the Lorentz interval and the Minkowski inner product . In mathematics, transformations equivalent to what was later known as Lorentz transformations in various dimensions were discussed in the 19th century in relation to the theory of quadratic forms, hyperbolic geometry, Möbius geometry, and sphere geometry, which is connected to the fact that the group of motions in hyperbolic space, the Möbius group or projective special linear group, and the Laguerre group are isomorphic to the Lorentz group.

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