Thermal Field Theory (spring 2008)
class: Tuesdays 13:30-15:00pm (Vivian 516)

literature:
Michel Le Bellac, Thermal Field Theory, Cambridge University Press (2000)
Joseph I. Kapusta and Charles Gale, Finite-Temperature Field Theory, Cambridge University Press (2006, 2nd edition)


contents per lecture:

1. motivation (in equilibrium), partition function, pressure, Stefan Boltzmann law
2. path integral in QM, imaginary-time formalism
3. self energy, tadpole resummation
4. effective potential, symmetry restoration
5. effective potential, retarded Green functions, spectral functions
6. gauge boson self energy
7. HTL approximation, collective excitations, screening
8. magnetic mass, dimensional reduction