Anthony Fischer-Cripps is an experienced lecturer in physics and a former senior scientist at CSIRO, Australian's national scientific research institution. Dr. Cripps has published several student books over the years as well as undertaking fundamental research in applied physics in the field of nanoindentation.

Choice Outstanding Title, September 2020

This book fills a gap in the middle ground between quantum mechanics of a single electron to the concept of a quantum field. In doing so, the book is divided into two parts; the first provides the necessary background to quantum theory extending from Planck's formulation of black body radiation to Schrodinger's equation; and the second part explores Dirac's relativistic electron to quantum fields, finishing with an description of Feynman diagrams and their meaning.

Much more than a popular account, yet not too heavy so as to be inaccessible, this book assumes no prior knowledge of quantum physics or field theory and provides the necessary foundations for readers to then progress to more advanced texts on quantum field theory. It will be of interest to undergraduate students in physics and mathematics, in addition to an interested, general audience.

• Provides an extensive yet accessible background to the concepts


• Contains numerous, illustrative diagrams


• Presents in-depth explanations of difficult subjects

Chapter 1. Mathematics

Chapter 2. Waves

Chapter 3. Electromagnetic Waves

Chapter 4. Kinetic Theory of Gases

Chapter 5. Quantum Theory

Chapter 6. The Bohr Atom

Chapter 7. The New Quantum Theory

Chapter 8. Relativity

Chapter 9. Advanced Mathematics

Chapter 10. Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

Chapter 11. Probability Flow

Chapter 12. Wave Functions and Spinors

Chapter 13. Classical Field Theory

Chapter 14. Lorentz Invariance

Chapter 15. The Electromagnetic Field

Chapter 16. The Quantum Field

Chapter 17. Feynman Diagrams

Chapter 18. Conclusion