The Principles of Renormalisation

Abstract

Loop diagrams often yield ultraviolet divergent integrals. We introduce the concept of one-particle irreducible diagrams and develop the power counting argument which makes possible the classification of quantum field theories into non-renormalisable, renormalisable and super-renormalisable. We describe some regularisation schemes with particular emphasis on dimensional regularisation. The renormalisation programme is described at one loop order for φ‎4 and QED. We argue, without presenting the detailed proof, that the programme can be extended to any finite order in the perturbation expansion for every renormalisable (or super-renormalisable) quantum field theory. We derive the equation of the renormalisation group and explain how it can be used in order to study the asymptotic behaviour of Green functions. This makes it possible to introduce the concept of asymptotic freedom.