Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 43 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the momentum-space Feynman rules with the scalar Feynman propagator . The four-leg vertex of a factorial-normalized scalar interaction has weight for the positive interaction sign printed here. There are Wick contractions assigning four external legs to its four fields, cancelling the factorial in its coefficient. A negative interaction sign would give ; its squared tree amplitude is the same.
At each vertex include with all incident momenta taken incoming. Assign an internal momentum to each line and integrate each independent loop with . Divide a graph by its Feynman-diagram symmetry factor, sum the graphs at the chosen order, and omit disconnected vacuum graphs from normalized amplitudes. For an S-matrix element, amputate external propagators and put the external momenta on shell as in the LSZ reduction formula; the external one-particle residues are one at tree level.
Define the invariant amplitude by the relativistically normalized matrix elementwith . The lowest-order connected four-point graph is one contact vertex:There is no exchange graph at this order because there is no three-field interaction.
For the elastic scattering from a quartic scalar contact interaction, write for the total centre-of-mass energy and for the energy of each incoming particle. The incoming and outgoing spatial momentum magnitudes both equal , with . The invariant incident flux isThe Lorentz-invariant phase-space measure for two outgoing particles isIn the centre-of-mass frame, the spatial delta function sets , while the energy delta function has radial derivative . Therefore the relativistic two-body phase space satisfiesThe two outgoing real-scalar particles are identical. Integrating over the full solid angle counts each unordered pair twice, so include the identical final-state symmetry factor . This givesThis is isotropic. When denotes each particle's energy, and the full-sphere event density is . If denotes the total energy of the pair, and it is . Stating the answer in removes that energy-label ambiguity.
An equally valid angular convention selects one outgoing particle in a hemisphere, so each event is represented once. In that convention omit and use on the hemisphere, or . Both conventions give at this order. The identical-state factor concerns counting final states and is separate from the vertex factorial.
