Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-advanced-quantum-field-theory-for-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2020/2/a/iii/solution

The massive Dirac propagator is
Use the gamma matrix trace identities and . They give
The integrand is odd under , and dimensional regularization preserves that symmetry. The same vanishing holds for . One must not assert that itself is zero: its term proportional to generally is nonzero and divergent, but its trace against a single gamma matrix is zero. This one-photon fermion loop is also the simplest instance of Furry's theorem.

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