QFT: Zee

Any good theoretical physicist needs to have a deep understanding of quantum field theory(QFT). It's not a sufficient condition, of course, but it is pretty close to being absolutely necessary. Knowledge of that fact is probably why I have some dozens of books on quantum field theory. Transfer of information from the printed page is not automatic, of course, which is why I have a distinctly shallow* understanding of QFT.

Tony Zee is a guy with a deep understanding of QFT, and he has written a somewhat unconventional but widely praised book on quantum field theory: Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell. I mention this because Peter Woit has pointed out that Zee is coming out with a new edition.

Looking over the promo page at PUP, I was surprised to see my old school among the major universities that had adopted the first edition as a textbook - not surprised that they had adopted the book but that they were a "major" university. In my day, the old school was notable mainly for baseball, parties, hot girls, and good football teams. These days, the good football teams have vanished - I hope there are still some hot girsls about.

I have the first edition, and quite like those parts I have read. It would be ridiculous for me to buy the second, since there is essentially no chance that it will inspire me towork hard enough to get a significantly deeper understanding of QFT. I probably will buy it, of course, but maybe I can wait until the preorder period is almost up.

*Even that may be a little overly generous. What I mean is that I took and passed a couple of courses in the subject, read parts of a number of books, and worked some of the easier problems. On the other hand, if I open a QFT book at random to a middle chapter, the odds are that I will have little clue as to what is going on. If I'm lucky, I will see an equation I remember.

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