Feynman Lectures on the Strong Interactions

TL;DR

This paper compiles Feynman's lectures on the strong interactions and QCD, highlighting his unique teaching style and proposing a novel nonperturbative approach to quantum field theory.

Contribution

It presents the full set of Feynman's lectures on strong interactions, including new insights and a novel nonperturbative formulation of quantum field theory.

Findings

Feynman's distinctive teaching approach is evident throughout.

Proposes a new nonperturbative formulation of quantum field theory.

Provides comprehensive supplementary materials and recordings.

Abstract

These twenty-two lectures, with exercises, comprise the extent of what was meant to be a full-year graduate-level course on the strong interactions and QCD, given at Caltech in 1987-88. The course was cut short by the illness that led to Feynman's death. Several of the lectures were finalized in collaboration with Feynman for an anticipated monograph based on the course. The others, while retaining Feynman's idiosyncrasies, are revised similarly to those he was able to check. His distinctive approach and manner of presentation are manifest throughout. Near the end he suggests a novel, nonperturbative formulation of quantum field theory in $D$ dimensions. Supplementary material is provided in appendices and ancillary files, including verbatim transcriptions of three lectures and the corresponding audiotaped recordings.