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Introduction to Thermal Field Theory

T. Altherr
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Abstract

This is intended to be a very basic introduction and short (and of course incomplete) overview of thermal field theory. In the first part, I introduce the thermal propagator at a very simple level and give the Feynman rules using the time-path contour method. In the second part, I give examples of these rules in scalar theory and discuss the origin of the thermal mass and other important effects as infrared divergences and phase transitions. In the third part, I outline the resummation program of Braaten and Pisarski.

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T. Altherr. 1993-07-15. Introduction to Thermal Field Theory. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0217751x93002216

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