Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-field-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2020/3/c/solution

Hold the external endpoints fixed and distinguish the three Feynman diagrams by their left-to-right order in the source. Write for the divisor and for the multiplying combinatorial weight. Each line below includes external Feynman propagators; amputation leaves the same .
Left: two-point bubble. There are two cubic interaction vertices and two parallel internal lines. Interchanging those lines preserves the labelled external endpoints, giving . Direct Wick contraction counting gives two assignments of the external endpoints to the vertices, choices of their field slots, and pairings of the remaining slots:
With and external points , its contribution is
Middle: three-point triangle. The three labelled external endpoints fix their three adjacent cubic interaction vertices, so no nonidentity graph automorphism remains. Counting gives assignments of endpoints to vertices, choices of external field slots, and assignments of remaining slots to the two specified neighbours:
Its contribution is
The apparent rotational symmetry of an unlabelled triangle does not survive fixing three distinct external endpoints.
Right: two-point graph with a chord. There are four cubic interaction vertices: the left and right attachment vertices and the two chord ends . Its internal edges are . Reflection interchanges , fixes , and preserves the two external labels. This is the only nontrivial graph automorphism, so .
For a separate Wick contraction count, choose the ordered external attachment vertices in ways and their field slots in ways. Assign their two remaining slots to in ways. At each of , choose the slot joining and then the slot joining in ways; the last slots join each other. Thus
Its contribution is
Consequently the three multiplying weights are , or divisors . The central chord is a single internal line joining two vertices, not a vertex at the centre of the circle.

New to topics? Read the docs here!