Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-field-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2024/2/b/solution

Every positive-energy Dirac spinor obeys . Therefore the fermion spin sum satisfies
Since and , the trace of each outer product is its contracted scalar. The prescribed normalization and the two spin states yield
Now make exactly the stated polynomial assumption and apply polynomial reduction of a slashed vector. By a, on the mass shell write . Then
The matrices and are linearly independent for a physical nonzero , so . The gamma matrix trace identities, and , give
Thus and
No explicit representation of the Dirac spinors has been used. The same reasoning covers provided .

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