Quantum Fields on a Lattice (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics)

This book presents a comprehensive and coherent account of the theory of quantum fields on a lattice, an essential technique for the study of the strong and electroweak nuclear interactions. Quantum field theory describes basic physical phenomena over an extremely wide range of length or energy scales. Quantum fields exist in space and time, which can be approximated by a set of lattice points. This approximation allows the application of powerful analytical and numerical techniques, and has provided a powerful tool for the study of both the strong and the electroweak interaction. After introductory chapters on scalar fields, gauge fields and fermion fields, the book studies quarks and gluons in QCD and fermions and bosons in the electroweak theory. The last chapter is devoted to numerical simulation algorithms which have been used in recent large-scale numerical simulations. The book will be valuable for graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics, elementary particle physics, and field theory, interested in non-perturbative approximations and numerical simulations of quantum field phenomena.