Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 312 1 i Solution 2026-09-28
Under spatial reflection, a scalar field obeys , and hence each spatial derivative changes sign. The interaction contains three such derivatives, so changing the integration variable from to givesThus this is a parity-odd scalar interaction.
Put and . Hermitian conjugation and commutativity of equal-time scalar fields giveThe parity-invariant vacuum and the odd parity of imply . ThereforeThere is no conflict with the usual rule for two Hermitian operators: a momentum-space product at fixed is generally not itself Hermitian, since its adjoint carries momenta .