Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 1 / d / Solution

Let $I,L,V$ count internal lines, independent loops, and interaction vertices of a connected Feynman diagram. The graph identity $L=I-V+1$ and the two inverse powers from each scalar propagator give its superficial degree of divergence:The same formula applies to every connected subgraph. Graphs with $V\ge 2$ have negative superficial degree of divergence, but this alone does not remove a possible ultraviolet subdivergence. A one-vertex subgraph with external legs in the quartic scalar field theory can diverge only by a tadpole diagram, whose subtraction was fixed in c. Subtract every such tadpole diagram; every remaining loop subgraph then has $V\ge 2$ and negative superficial degree of divergence. Its ultraviolet divergence is absent. Equivalently, normal ordering the quartic interaction removes all self-contractions at a single interaction vertex. Thus no new divergent field-dependent counterterm structure is needed, and in a normal-ordering subtraction scheme in two dimensions the one-loop mass subtraction exhausts these divergent coefficients.

The literal assertion that there are no further counterterm contributions in the on-shell renormalization scheme is stronger and generally false. A concrete counterexample is the two-loop sunset diagram. After analytic continuation below its three-particle threshold, the magnitude of its self-energy at $p^2=m^2$ contains the strictly positive finite integralThe integrable corners do not spoil convergence. Its nonzero value shifts the pole mass, requiring an additional finite mass counterterm if $m$ is to remain the exact pole mass; its derivative can likewise change the pole residue. These are compatible with the power counting result. If vacuum diagrams are retained rather than divided out in normalized correlation functions, a separate constant vacuum energy counterterm is also required: the one-vertex double-loop vacuum diagram is already divergent. The claim about the mass subtraction concerns field-dependent counterterms and normalized correlation functions.