Finite Quantum Electrodynamics: The Causal Approach

by G. Scharf

In this textbook for graduate students in physics the author carefully analyses the role of causality in Q.E.D. This new approach avoids ultraviolet divergences, so that the detailed calculations of scattering processes and proofs can be carried out in a mathematically rigorous manner. Significant themes such as renormalizability, gauge invariance, unitarity, renormalization group, interacting fields and axial anomalies are discussed. The extension of the methods to non-abelian gauge theories is briefly described.
The book differs considerably from its first Chap. 3 on Causal Perturbation Theory was completely rewritten and Chap. 4 on Properties of the S-Matrix and Chap. 5 on Other Electromagnetic Couplings are new.

409 pages, Hardcover

First published November 10, 1995