Introduction to light cone field theory and high energy scattering
Raju Venugopalan
TL;DR
This set of four lectures provides a pedagogical introduction to light-cone field theory and its applications to high-energy scattering. It develops the two-component spinor formalism, light-cone constraints, and the decomposition of the QCD Hamiltonian into $P_0^-$ and $V_{QCD}$, noting the trivial light-cone vacuum and the subtle role of zero modes. It then uses a QED example to derive the high-energy eikonal scattering and interpret the process in terms of a parton picture. Finally, Bjorken scaling is derived from light-cone commutation relations, with the structure functions identified as light-cone parton distributions and connected to the operator-product expansion, twist analysis, and the Callan-Gross relation. The presentation emphasizes the conceptual advantages and practical links between bound-state dynamics and deep inelastic scattering in QCD.
Abstract
In this set of four lectures, we provide an elementary introduction to light cone field theory and some of its applications in high energy scattering.