Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford / 2022 / 2 / b / ii / Solution

Use incoming fermion $p_1$ and antiparticle $p_2$, outgoing fermion $p_3$ and antiparticle $p_4$. The two tree-level Feynman diagrams are the $t$ channel, with $q_t=p_1-p_3=p_4-p_2$, and the $s$ channel, with $q_s=p_1+p_2=p_3+p_4$. They occupy the lower row of the figure. In the $t$ channel the fermion flow follows $1\to 3$ and $4\to 2$; in the $s$ channel it follows $1\to 2$ at the incoming interaction vertex and $4\to 3$ at the outgoing interaction vertex.

The two contractions again have a relative fermionic sign. With the same harmless common-phase convention as i, their sum isThe auxiliary-field propagator is the same constant $-i$ in both channels. There is no $u$ channel preserving the external fermion number assignments.