Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-major-option-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/8/d/solution

Label the initial particle and antiparticle and the corresponding final momenta , with and . Charge flow permits an -channel heavy-scalar annihilation graph and a -channel heavy-scalar exchange graph. It excludes a third -channel graph for these fixed charge assignments. The effective theory has one contact graph.
Figure 1.
Particle-antiparticle scattering by heavy scalar annihilation and exchange, compared with its low-energy quartic contact interaction; external charge labels are held fixed
. Details.
The two cubic Feynman vertices and the heavy propagator give
For ,
This independently checks the sign and the factor in solution. The next difference is the derivative correction of order in the amplitude.
Let denote the total center-of-mass energy, with . The final particle and antiparticle are distinct, so no identical-particle factor is needed. The leading isotropic differential scattering cross-section and total cross section are
Corrections are relatively of order and, in a high-energy expansion, , in addition to loop corrections when they matter. If instead denotes each beam particle's energy, substitute before comparing numerical prefactors.

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