Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 304 3 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
There is an interpretation issue in this clause. A proper quartic vertex, defined as the fourth derivative of the quantum effective action, has no additional tree or reducible contribution in the bare cubic theory: the three boxes exhaust its one-loop diagrams. The strict local zero-momentum vertex of a Wilsonian effective action also has no high-mode exchange bridge, since the momentum carried by that bridge would be zero, outside the shell. Thus
If “other diagrams” means the amputated connected correlation function, there are additional one-particle-reducible Feynman diagrams. Specify full external-propagator amputation and a vacuum with tadpole subtraction. The three tree exchange channels each contribute at zero momentum. At one loop, a triangle Feynman diagram can replace either cubic end of any exchange, giving six diagrams; a bubble diagram can be inserted in the internal exchange line, giving three diagrams with symmetry factor . The proper lower-point vertices at zero momentum, from the same trace-log expansion, areTherefore the reducible part of the connected four-point amplitude isAdding the three boxes gives in this convention. This is the cubic-scalar exchange corrections at zero momentum result, obtained equivalently from .
If the tadpole has not been subtracted, it is an additional one-loop subgraph that must not be forgotten. The proper one-point function is . Its attachment to the internal exchange line gives another three reducible diagrams, contributing ; equivalently the stationary background shifts by and changes the exchanged mass by . A linear counterterm enforcing cancels this contribution. External self-energy or tadpole diagram attachments are removed by the stated full-propagator amputation; using bare external amputation would retain them instead. In that convention the four external-line decorations add to the displayed full-amputated result, with the part absent after tadpole subtraction. If the expansion is expressed in renormalized parameters, also include the corresponding counterterm diagrams: replacing either cubic exchange vertex gives , and a mass insertion on the bridge gives . A linear counterterm adds through the same tadpole attachment and cancels it when . The kinetic counterterm has zero insertion at zero exchanged momentum. At one loop these exhaust the possibilities: the single cycle has length four, three, two or one, corresponding respectively to box, triangle, bubble or tadpole, with tree branches attached.