I found Sean Carroll's "A No Nonsense Introduction to General Relativity" (about page here. pdf here), a 24-page overview of the topic, very helpful for beginning study. It all got me over the hump of learning the meaning of various terms associated with GR, most of which I had heard before without understanding. It also outlined the most important examples.
Is there a similar document for quantum field theory, which presents the main equations, briefly describes the main ideas, and summarizes the most important applications and results so that the reader can feel the lay of the land before studying in depth?
Answer
Gerard 't Hooft's "Quantum Field Theory for Elementary Particles. Is Quantum Field Theory a theory?" (Phys. Rept. 104 nos. 2-4 (1984), 129-142, author's eprint) is a beautifully written review. From the abstract,
What I would like to point out is that renormalizability is just one step in an evolutionary process of quantum field theory. In order to illuminate this point of view I will present a survey of the evolution of quantum field theory into its present form. However we will not follow the historical development, but rather, for my convenience, the lines of logic. As is well known, that is quite something different.
't Hooft also has a longer introduction to the subject:
The conceptual basis of Quantum Field Theory. Gerard 't Hooft. In Philosophy of Physics (J. Butterfield & J. Earman, eds., Elsevier/North-Holland: Amsterdam, 2007). Author's eprint.
This reads more like a textbook geared at readers with fairly solid quantum mechanics and a good understanding of special relativity, and covers a rather wide range of topics, so it is a little more advanced.
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