Renormalization and symmetries in quantum field theory

Divergence arises in calculating some Feynman diagrams representing the scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory. To manage and eliminate the divergence and produce finite results, the renormalization theory was developed. Symmetry plays a crucial role in renormalization. In this thesis, a dire...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Liu, Zheng
Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60099
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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Summary:Divergence arises in calculating some Feynman diagrams representing the scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory. To manage and eliminate the divergence and produce finite results, the renormalization theory was developed. Symmetry plays a crucial role in renormalization. In this thesis, a direct investigation of the symmetry properties (in particular, the Lorentz and gauge symmetries) was performed in the context of quantum electrodynamics (QED). It turns out that these symmetries impose sufficient constraints to the divergence structure to make QED renormalizable. This investigation provides an alternative proof of the renormalizability of QED.