Syllabus

Two halves of about seven weeks. Part I builds the path integral and follows it to the Wilsonian renormalization group; Part II gauges the theory and arrives at the Standard Model.

Part IAbout seven weeks

\Lambda\frac{dg}{d\Lambda} = \beta(g)

Path integrals and renormalization

Path integrals
Renormalized perturbation theory
Perturbative renormalization group
Wilsonian renormalization group

Reference: Zamolodchikov, lecture notes, §5–19
Seminar: Wilson and Kogut, The renormalization group and the ε expansion, §1–8

Part IIAbout seven weeks

\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{QED}} = \bar\psi\left(i\gamma^{\mu}D_{\mu} - m\right)\psi - \tfrac{1}{4}F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}

Gauge theory

Quantum electrodynamics
Yang–Mills theory
The Higgs mechanism
The Standard Model

Reference: Peskin, with Ryder as auxiliary
Seminar: Computer-assisted perturbative QFT, from Mathematica to agentic workflows

Conventions

Each half of the course fixes its own conventions — the metric signature, how the coupling is normalized, the sign and definition of the mass operator, and that $d = 4 - \varepsilon$ . They are published with the problem sets and applied consistently in feedback.