A Primer on Functional Methods and the Schwinger-Dyson Equations

Abstract

An elementary introduction to functional methods and the Schwinger-Dyson equations is presented. Emphasis is placed on practical topics not normally covered in textbooks, such as a diagrammatic method for generating equations at high order, different forms of Schwinger-Dyson equations, renormalisation, and methods for solving Schwinger-Dyson equations.

Comments: 38 pages, 15 figures. Lectures presented at Hadron XI, Maresias, Brazil and HUGS, Jefferson Lab. v2: tex formatting issues fixed, references added. v3 typos corrected