The Theory and Applications of Instanton Calculations

This 2017 volume, now reissued as OA, provides an accessible, detailed introduction to instanton methods and their many applications.

Manu Paranjape (Author)

9781009291262, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 February 2023

322 pages
25 x 17.6 x 2.2 cm, 0.72 kg

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. This title, first published in 2017, has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.

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. As aside on 0(4)
Appendix B. Asymptotic analysis
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Statistical physics [PHS]