Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-advanced-quantum-field-theory-for-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/1/a/i/solution

Choose the covariant derivative , so the interaction term is . The gauge transformation is and . The derivative of this local phase cancels the added vector-potential term in , making gauge-invariant.
For renormalized fields and parameters, a complete local QED counterterm parametrization is
With , , the definitions are , , and . In particular is the coefficient in the Lagrangian density, not just .
The Ward identity requires in a gauge-preserving renormalization scheme. The kinetic and vertex counterterms then combine into , so gauge invariance is explicit and . A photon mass term is not an allowed counterterm in unbroken QED. For perturbative inversion one separately adds gauge fixing, , taking in Feynman gauge. That quantization term is not itself part of the gauge-invariant density. The Abelian Faddeev-Popov determinant is field independent for this linear gauge and introduces no interacting ghost contribution.

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