For Phi-six theory, let and . The Dyson series gives
At one vertex, Wick theorem supplies pairings. At two vertices let be the number of propagators joining them. It must be or , and the number of contractions is
Therefore
The four Vacuum Feynman diagram types are shown below. The term is two disconnected copies of the order- three-tadpole graph; the other three are connected.
Figure 1.
Vacuum diagrams in phi-six theory through second order
. At first order one six-valent vertex is paired into three tadpoles. At second order the two vertices can have two, four, or six connecting propagators, with the remaining legs paired into tadpoles.
Define
and let be the sum of the terms in the second line. The disconnected contribution is exactly . Hence
which is the linked-cluster theorem: the logarithm of the vacuum amplitude is the sum of connected vacuum bubbles.
The perturbative expansion of contains arbitrary Feynman diagrams, including disconnected products. The linked-cluster theorem gives
because the factorials from repeated connected components reproduce the exponential series. Therefore is the sum of connected Feynman diagrams.
The Legendre transform removes diagrams that disconnect upon cutting one internal line. Equivalently, every connected diagram is a tree whose vertices are exact one-particle-irreducible vertices and whose edges are exact propagators. Thus
and its functional derivatives are the one-particle-irreducible correlation functions. Algebraically, differentiating the Legendre relations gives
so an exact quantum field theory propagator joining two proper vertices is precisely the inverse Hessian matrix needed to reconstruct connected diagrams.