EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Path Integrals in Quantum Field Theory: A Friendly Introduction
Speaker: Chris Elliott
Speaker Info: Northwestern
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

The path integral is an idea from physics that touches on many areas of mathematics, from analysis through topology to representation theory and back again. But where does it come from? I'll aim to give a no background demystification of the idea, telling an important story of 20th century physics. Along the way I'll introduce the ideas of "quantum field theory" and "quantisation", and give some hints about what kind of calculations physicists are interested in doing that have led to applications in so many parts of mathematics.

I won't assume you know any quantum theory (or any other physics) already. I also won't have time to say more than a few words about how we actually define and compute path integrals (via Feynman diagrams and renormalization, or more modern methods): that could be the subject of a future talk.