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
PBS SpaceTime has a lot of good videos that slowly broach the subject
https://youtube.com/@pbsspacetime?
Viascience series have a little more of the math
Videos on Quantum Dynamics https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL193BC0532FE7B02C
Videos on Quantum Field Theory https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsp_BbZBIk_6_5pi9tHHmoVJzjqpfBkgJ
For a popular level explanation, try Feynman’s “QED” lecture series,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QED:_The_Strange_Theory_of_Light_and_Matter
A more technical understanding is a lot more work and I never got anywhere near this level, the “theoretical minimum”:
https://theoreticalminimum.com/
Actually for the stuff you are asking about, the theoretical minumum isn’t really enough, but it’s a start. Here’s some more:
Stanford has a lot of freely available information that might be useful for you to study.
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.
According to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the exact procedure to learn quantum field theory :
“it would be much easier to get on a Vogon ship”