Basics of Thermal Field Theory: A Tutorial on Perturbative Computations (Lecture Notes in Physics #925)

By: Mikko Laine and Aleksi Vuorinen

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Synopsis: This book presents thermal field theorytechniques, which can be applied in both cosmology and the theoreticaldescription of the QCD plasma generated in heavy-ion collision experiments. Itfocuses on gauge interactions (whether weak or strong), which are essential inboth contexts. As well as the many differences in the physics questions posedand in the microscopic forces playing a central role, the authors also explainthe similarities and the techniques, such as the resummations, that are neededfor developing a formally consistent perturbative expansion. The formalism is developed step by step, startingfrom quantum mechanics; introducing scalar, fermionic and gauge fields; describingthe issues of infrared divergences; resummations and effective field theories;and incorporating systems with finite chemical potentials. With this machineryin place, the important class of real-time (dynamic) observables is treated insome detail. This is followed by an overview of a number of applications,ranging from the study of phase transitions and particle production ratecomputations, to the concept of transport and damping coefficients that play aubiquitous role in current developments. The book serves as a self-contained textbook on relativistic thermal field theoryfor undergraduate and graduate students of theoretical high-energy physics.