Most of the numerical predictions of experimental phenomena in particle physics over the last decade have been made possible by the discovery and exploitation of the simplifications that can happen when phenomena are investigated on short distance and time scales. This book provides a coherent exposition of the techniques underlying these calculations. After reminding the reader of some basic properties of field theories, examples are used to explain the problems to be treated. Then the technique of dimensional regularization and the renormalization group. Finally a number of key applications are treated, culminating in the treatment of deeply inelastic scattering.

‘Professor Collins’s excellent and highly professional book, the first one devoted exclusively to the subject, offers a systematic and thorough presentation, at a level accessible to those already familiar with the rudiments of quantum field theory … certainly a most useful advanced text.’

Source: The Times Higher Education Supplement