Spinning Particles in Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory (1512.08694v2)

Abstract: These are notes of lectures on spinning particles and the worldline formalism originally given by Olindo Corradini and Christian Schubert at the School on Spinning Particles in Quantum Field Theory: Worldline Formalism, Higher Spins, and Conformal Geometry, held at Morelia, Mexico, from November 19 through November 23, 2012. The lectures were addressed to graduate level students with a background in relativistic quantum mechanics and at least a rudimentary knowledge of field theory. They have since been updated to include a further set of lecture notes on tree level processes from a worldline perspective based on a mini-course by James P. Edwards at the Instituto de Fisica y Matematicas in Morelia, Mexico given to graduates and visiting professors during July 2017 and in various later classes, complemented by a series of three lectures titled New techniques for amplitude calculation in QED given by Naser Ahmadiniaz at the Center for Relativistic Laser Science (CoReLS), Institute for Basic Science(IBS), November 2015, Gwangju, South Korea and as an invited lecturer at the Helmholtz International Summer School (HISS) - Dubna International Advanced School of Theoretical Physics (DIAS-TH): 'Quantum Field Theory at the Limits: from Strong Fields to Heavy Quarks', July-August 2019, Dubna, Russia. These additional notes complete the picture of first quantised techniques and bring the worldline description up to date. The extended Abstract can be found in the manuscript.