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A box diagram has a one-loop cycle of four propagator edges and four vertices connecting external legs. Its internal particle types depend on the theory. In a charged weak box contribution to kaon mixing, two charged weak-boson propagators connect two up-type quark lines, with flavor-changing charged-current vertices.

A Standard Model charged-current box diagram converts $d\bar{s}$ into $s\bar{d}$. Internal quarks run over $u,c,t$, and the flavor sum contains ${\lambda }_i{\lambda }_j$ with ${\lambda }_i=V_{is}^{\ast }{V}_{id}$. The loop function depends on internal masses; CKM matrix unitarity gives ${\sum }_i{\lambda }_i=0$, producing the GIM mechanism cancellation of flavor-independent terms. The amplitude is of order $g^4$ and second order in the weak interaction.

The elastic scattering of two photons into two photons. In vacuum QED there is no photon self-coupling at tree level; its leading scattering amplitude is the sum of six oriented charged-fermion box diagrams. The superficial degree of divergence is zero, but the photon Ward identities forbid the required local dimension-four $A^4$ counterterm. The complete one-loop Feynman diagram sum is consequently ultraviolet finite. This does not remove its finite four-momentum dependence or its physical thresholds.

For the charge-two cubic complex-scalar interaction, integrating out a complex scalar field of mass $m$ generates the displayed local effective Lagrangian term when external energies and momenta are small compared with $m$. A constant $\Phi$ gives two real squared masses $m^2\pm g|\Phi |$. Expanding half the sum of their one-loop logarithms gives $V_1\supset -g^4|\Phi {|}^4{I}_4/4$, with the Euclidean massive loop integral $I_4=1/(96{\pi }^2{m}^4)$. Since ${\mathcal{L}}_{\mathrm{eff}}=-V_1$ for a constant field, $2!2!$ external attachments give the scattering amplitude $g^4/(96{\pi }^2{m}^4)$ for either heavy-heavy or heavy-antiparticle elastic scattering. This agrees with the unique charge-allowed light box diagram.

The two one-loop Feynman diagrams are fermion loops with three photon interaction vertices. Fix vertex 1; the two cyclic orders are $(1,2,3)$ and $(1,3,2)$. A cyclic rotation does not produce another Feynman diagram. Keeping all three external labels in the same positions, these two orders can be represented by the same triangle with opposite fermion flow, as in the first two panels.

The photons are labelled $(k_1,\mu )$, $(k_2,\nu )$, $(k_3,\rho )$, with all four-momenta incoming and $k_1+k_2+k_3=0$. The amputation of external propagators removes the three external photon propagators, leaving their Lorentz indices open. There are no other connected one-loop Feynman diagrams with only three external photons in QED.

The third panel of the figure in part a is a representative four-photon box diagram. Fix the external photon labelled 1 and orient the fermion loop. The six inequivalent cyclic orders of the labelled interaction vertices areThey are obtained by permuting labels $2,3,4$ on the displayed box, keeping label 1 fixed. Equivalently there are three undirected boxes, each with two opposite fermion flows. The reversal pairs areFor four photon interaction vertices, the sign in part d is positive, so the members of each pair add. They can be represented by three box diagrams multiplied by two. There is no tree photon self-coupling in QED, and therefore no triangle or bubble with a photon self-vertex to add at this loop order. This is the one-loop light-by-light scattering contribution, of order $e^4$.

The flavor content is $K^0=d\bar{s}$ and ${\bar{K}}^0=s\bar{d}$. A charged-current box diagram changes strangeness by two units. The two internal quark lines can contain any up-type flavors $u_i,u_j\in \{u,c,t\}$, connected by two charged $W$ propagators. One allowed topology is shown below; its crossed counterpart also contributes to the full mixing amplitude.

Each charged-current vertex contains the appropriate CKM matrix element. The flavor sum has combinations ${\lambda }_i{\lambda }_j$, with ${\lambda }_i=V_{is}^{\ast }{V}_{id}$, multiplying mass-dependent loop functions. CKM matrix unitarity gives ${\sum }_i{\lambda }_i=0$, illustrating the GIM cancellation of flavor-independent loop terms. The diagram is at order $g^4$ and second order in the weak interaction.

Let $\Theta$ be the antiunitary CPT operator. It interchanges the neutral-kaon flavor states up to phases. For a Hermitian Hamiltonian invariant under CPT,since the diagonal expectation is real. Therefore CPT gives $R_{11}=R_{22}$. More generally an effective decay Hamiltonian has $R=M-i\Gamma /2$, where both $M$ and $\Gamma$ are Hermitian. CPT gives $M_{11}=M_{22}$ and ${\Gamma }_{11}={\Gamma }_{22}$, hence the same equality of the complex diagonal entries. It does not require $R_{12}=R_{21}$; that is a CP condition. Nor is $R_{21}=R_{12}^{\ast }$ true for the full decay matrix in general.

Choose the CP convention $CP|K^0⟩=-|{\bar{K}}^0⟩$ and $CP|{\bar{K}}^0⟩=-|K^0⟩$. Then CP acts as $-{\sigma }_x$ on the flavor basis. Invariance of $H^{\prime }$ means $R={\sigma }_{x}R{\sigma }_x$, and thereforeWith a different flavor-state phase convention this relation carries the corresponding phase factors; equality is the relation in the convention adopted here. For a Hermitian mass matrix it makes the off-diagonal element real.

For the requested production-time mass eigenstates, discard the absorptive part. From now on $R$ denotes the Hermitian part $(R_{\mathrm{original}}+R_{\mathrm{original}}^{†})/2$, so its entries have the formIf the original matrix already was Hermitian no replacement is needed. The neutral-kaon mass matrix diagonalization gives eigenvalues $r_0\pm |z|$, since $(r_0-\lambda {)}^2-|z{|}^2=0$. Write $z=r{e}^{i\phi }$, $r=|z|>0$. Use the kaon mixing square-root branch conventioncontinuously from the CP-conserving convention in which $z>0$. Independent unrelated root signs would interchange the eigenvalue labels. Direct multiplication gives $R(a,-b{)}^T=(r_0-r)(a,-b{)}^T$ and $R(a,b{)}^T=(r_0+r)(a,b{)}^T$. Assigning the larger mass to $K_L^0$ giveswith mass shifts $r_0-r$ and $r_0+r$ respectively. A common strong-interaction mass may simply be added to both. Their norms are one and their inner product is zero. A Hermitian mass-only calculation determines the lighter and heavier combinations; it does not determine their different lifetimes.

In the CP-conserving limit, the chosen lighter and heavier combinations areThey are CP eigenstates with eigenvalues $+1$ and $-1$ in the convention above. The sign of the real off-diagonal entry and the flavor-state convention are chosen together so that the stated $K_1^0=K_S^0$ limit is the lower-mass state.

Changing to this CP basis givesConsequently, provided $a+b\ne 0$, defineAbsorbing the common phase of $a+b$ into the definitions of the mass eigenstates and normalizing now yieldsFor this Hermitian approximation, $ϵ=i\tan (\phi /2)$ is purely imaginary, so $⟨K_S^0|K_L^0⟩=(ϵ+{ϵ}^{\ast })/(1+|ϵ{|}^2)=0$. The phase convention matters for the kaon CP mixing parameter. Physical kaon decay eigenstates instead diagonalize the generally non-Hermitian matrix $M-i\Gamma /2$, for which the mixing parameter can have a real part and the eigenstates need not be orthogonal. The formula here is the requested mass-only result, not a calculation of that full decay dynamics.

Cross the second incoming heavy particle and one outgoing heavy particle in i to obtain $\Phi \bar{\Phi }\to \Phi \bar{\Phi }$. Panel (e) of b's figure shows the resulting box diagram. Its four light-charge arrows again alternate source and sink corners; it is the only connected order-$g^4$ topology. There is no tree exchange because every cubic interaction vertex has only one heavy leg. With $|\mathbf{p}|\ll M\ll m$, crossing does not affect the zero-external-momentum loop integral, soAn independent check is to integrate out the complex scalar field $\varphi$ at constant $\Phi$. Its two real-component squared masses are $m^2\pm g|\Phi |$. The one-loop quantum effective potential is thereforeExpanding the logarithms to fourth order in $\Phi$ givesThus the effective Lagrangian has the positive local coefficient $g^4/(384{\pi }^2{m}^4)$. Its $2!2!$ external attachments give the common scattering amplitude $g^4/(96{\pi }^2{m}^4)$ in both channels. This also checks the box multiplicity and sign.

Four external $\Phi$ lines require four cubic interaction vertices, since each such interaction vertex contains only one heavy field. Their other eight endpoints must form four light internal lines. A connected Feynman diagram therefore has $V=I=4$ and $L=1$: the leading contribution is a one-loop box diagram, of order $g^4$, with four $\varphi$ scalar propagators. Charge-two incoming and outgoing heavy lines attach alternately around the box, as shown in panel (d) of b's figure. Each incoming heavy line supplies the two outgoing light-charge arrows at its corner, and each outgoing heavy line absorbs them. With external labels fixed there is one such box and its symmetry factor is one.

For $|\mathbf{p}|\ll M\ll m$, the external energies are also small compared with $m$, so expand the loop integrand in all external four-momenta. Its leading term isA Wick rotation and the Euclidean massive loop integral giveHence, more precisely than just its requested scaling,The mass dimension $[g]=1$ makes $g^4/m^4$ dimensionless, as a four-dimensional scattering amplitude should be. The leading amplitude has no extra identical-particle multiplicity.