Quantum Chromodynamics

Abstract

After a brief historical review of the emergence of QCD as the quantum field theory of strong interactions, the basic notions of colour and gauge invariance are introduced leading to the QCD Lagrangian. The second lecture is devoted to perturbative QCD, from tree-level processes to higher-order corrections in renormalized perturbation theory, including jet production in e+ e- annihilation, hadronic tau decays and deep inelastic scattering. The final two lectures treat various aspects of QCD beyond perturbation theory. The main theme is effective field theories, from heavy quarks to the light quark sector where the spontaneously broken chiral symmetry of QCD plays a crucial role.Comment: 48 pages, 28 figures. Lectures given at the 2005 European School of High-Energy Physics, Kitzbuehel, Austria, Aug. 21 - Sept. 3, 2005; to appear in the Proceedings (CERN Yellow Report