External-leg factorial cancellation at a quartic scalar vertex

ID: external-leg-factorial-cancellation-at-a-quartic-scalar-vertex

For a real scalar field with interaction , the first Dyson series term is . Four labeled external legs can attach to the four fields in ways, or in ways after separating incoming and outgoing legs. The factorial cancels and spacetime integration supplies the four-momentum conservation delta function. This gives the connected tree scattering amplitude . The separate identical final-state symmetry factor belongs in the event phase-space integral and is not another vertex factor.

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