Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 44 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use units and the Minkowski metric , so . The canonical momentum of the real scalar field is , and the Hamiltonian operator isCanonical quantization of a real scalar field promotes and to operator-valued distributions satisfying the equal-time canonical commutation relationProducts and operator commutators can first be interpreted after spatial smearing. An additive vacuum constant in does not affect the following equations. In the Heisenberg picture, . Applying the canonical commutation relation to the quadratic Hamiltonian operator, and integrating the gradient term by parts, givesThus the Klein-Gordon equation is an operator equation. The spatial Fourier transform reduces it to , with . Its two frequency branches, together with the Hermitian adjoint condition , give the mode expansion of a free fieldThe measure is Lorentz invariant; its normalization fixes that of the creation and annihilation operators rather than imposing any extra physical assumption.
For invariant-normalized scalar mode extraction, take the Klein-Gordon inner product of with the field. The positive-frequency contribution has coefficient and spatial integral . The negative-frequency contribution has coefficient and spatial integral , so it vanishes because . ConsequentlyTaking the Hermitian adjoint, with the order of the scalar factors immaterial, yieldsEquivalently and . At a common time their operator commutator therefore isThe same calculation gives : the surviving factor is an energy difference supported at opposite spatial momenta. These are the bosonic canonical commutation relations in relativistic normalization of a one-particle state.
Choose the Fock vacuum by and . Only the annihilator-creator product contributes to the Wightman function, givingUsing time ordering and the reverse product for , the Feynman propagator, with the convention in this calculation, isIn particular the denominator in the spatial measure is in both terms.
To verify the four-dimensional Fourier transform representation, let and integrate the energy variable first:The Feynman i-epsilon prescription puts the positive-energy pole at and the negative-energy pole at . For , the contour integral closes in the lower half-plane with clockwise orientation. The residue theorem multiplies the residue by , giving . For , it closes counterclockwise above: multiplying the residue by gives . Thus . After inserting the spatial exponential, reversing in the negative-time term gives exactly the time ordering expression above. HenceThis equality is understood as a distribution limit; the same prescription gives .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 44 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
All three fields have mass . In the interaction picture the quantum fields evolve with the free Hamiltonian operator, so their equations areThe interactions evolve the states instead. For the appropriate mode expansion of a free field isIndependent species have commuting creation and annihilation operators. The full set of canonical commutation relations isThese follow from the separate equal-time canonical commutation relations for the three real scalar fields. For comparison, in the Heisenberg picture the full Euler-Lagrange field equations contain interactions: , , and . These are distinct from the free equations used in the interaction picture.
There are no derivative couplings, so the interaction Hamiltonian is . The interaction picture evolution operator obeysIterating its integral equation gives the Dyson seriesThe ordered integration region is equivalent to the unrestricted region with time ordering and the factor . Taking the scattering limit , , with the usual adiabatic prescription for perturbation theory, therefore yields the S-matrixAll fields inside this expression are interaction picture fields.
Use relativistic normalization of a one-particle state and take , . Define the connected scattering amplitude by . The identity contribution describes no scattering; the term linear in cannot connect these four external particles. At quadratic order, the connected term in the Dyson series isBy Wick theorem, a connected Wick contraction must attach the two external legs to at one vertex, the two external legs to at the other, and contract the remaining two fields. The two assignments of species to cancel the Dyson factor . At either vertex, the assignments of its identical fields to the incoming and outgoing particle cancel the interaction factor . Equivalently, the coefficient is multiplied by , giving . Therefore, writing ,Insert the Feynman propagator . The two vertex integrals impose and . With the Mandelstam invariant , this givesThis is distinguishable scalar scattering by a shared mediator with mediator mass . In physical elastic kinematics , so the denominator has no pole for . There is only the displayed -channel tree-level Feynman diagram: an - or -channel would require an absent mixed vertex. Each vertex contributes and the exchanged contributes , agreeing with the direct Wick contraction calculation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 49 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the Minkowski metric and the free real scalar field Lagrangian density . Its conjugate canonical momentum is . Spatial translation symmetry and Noether's theorem give the canonical stress-energy tensorVanishing boundary flux then makes the four-momentum of a free real scalar field constant. In particular the contravariant spatial momentum isThe minus sign is from ; it is essential for the following mode calculation.
In the quantized theory, insert the mode expansions into this integral, using a Hermitian symmetric ordering or normal ordering. Write . The spatial integral is , leavingEach last term integrates to zero: replace by and commute the two annihilation operators or the two creation operators. The mixed terms reorder by the canonical commutation relation. Their vacuum contribution is proportional to the integral of the odd vector and vanishes with an inversion-symmetric regulator; normal ordering removes it directly. Thus the normal-ordered free scalar four-momentum has spatial partThese manipulations can be made first with box modes and a symmetric momentum cutoff, then used on finite-particle wave packets.
The commutator derivation identity givesFor , the commutator expansion for exponential conjugation therefore gives the translation of a scalar creation operatorThe vacuum has zero momentum, so . Hence the one-particle momentum eigenstate obeys : translation preserves its momentum and multiplies it by the associated phase.
The annihilation operator receives the opposite phase. Substituting both phases into the field expansion givesThis is the specified conjugation convention for the spatial translation operator. On states, the active translation moves a wave packet by , giving a position wavefunction . Conjugating the field by instead would give the opposite argument shift. Infinitesimally the displayed result is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 55 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For null four-momentum, has rank one in its spinor indices. Positivity makes the null combinations act trivially; the remaining normalized pairs obey . Acting with distinct lowering operators on a highest-helicity state gives the helicity spectrum of a massless supermultiplet:A CPT completion of a supermultiplet adds the opposite helicities if needed. Interpreting the physical spin bounds as , the width fits inside only if . A literal one-sided bound on helicity without CPT would not give this maximum. The maximal spectra areandThus the maxima are (N=4) for spin at most one and (N=8) for spin at most two, with 16 and 256 states. Dimensional reduction of ten-dimensional super Yang-Mills theory on a six-torus gives the first: the vector yields one four-dimensional vector and six real scalar fields, and its Majorana-Weyl spinor yields four Weyl spinors. Reducing eleven-dimensional supergravity on a seven-torus gives the second: metric components supply one graviton, seven vectors and 28 scalars; the three-form supplies 21 vectors, 35 scalars and seven dualized two-form scalars; the gravitino supplies eight gravitini and 56 spin-half fields. These total 28 vectors and 70 scalars, with 128 boson and 128 fermion states.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 49 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the mostly-plus Minkowski metric, so , and the source term . Define the vacuum-normalized generating functional, connected generating functional, and quantum effective action byThe Legendre transform is taken after expressing in terms of , locally where this relation is invertible. Varying it gives and . The logarithm generates connected graphs; the Legendre transform removes graphs joined by a single propagator, leaving one-particle-irreducible vertices. This sign convention is important: its classical limit is , consistent with the positive vertices in this question.
For the free real scalar field, integration by parts puts the action into the form , where has Fourier symbol . Include the Feynman i-epsilon prescription . Completing the square yieldsand consequentlyThe physical scalar propagator is , whereas the inverse quadratic kernel appearing in is . Differentiating this quadratic functional and Fourier transforming givesThe infinitesimal prescription specifies propagators and is dropped when quoting the local vertex kernel.
At the order represented by tree-level Feynman diagrams, stationary phase gives , with the classical field equation . The Legendre transform cancels the source term, soThusOther connected tree graphs with several quartic vertices are one-particle reducible and belong to , not to the proper vertices of . This explains why no extra tree correction is hidden in these formulas.
The one-loop proper two-point graph is the tadpole diagram. The one-loop proper four-point graphs are the three bubble diagrams, with pairings , and of the external legs. Each has Feynman-diagram symmetry factor . The figure shows the topologies and every four-point channel; external momenta are incoming.
The tadpole factor can also be counted directly: there are assignments of two labeled external legs to one quartic vertex, while its normalization leaves . For a fixed four-point partition, the interchange of the two internal lines gives the same factor ; there are three distinct partitions. Graphs with an external self-energy insertion are one-particle reducible and are not additional contributions to .
For the two-point divergence, perform a Wick rotation. The Euclidean tadpole contribution to the proper inverse kernel isAssume to separate the ultraviolet calculation from infrared issues. A Schwinger parameterization gives . Using the supplied Gaussian integral, initially in the convergence region, givesThe last expression provides the meromorphic dimensional regularization continuation. Set . Since ,If the coupling is written as , that factor multiplies the intermediate integral but does not change the displayed pole residue. The negative pole is a property of analytic continuation; it must not be inferred from the positive cutoff integrand without carrying out the continuation.
The added mass counterterm contributes to , because and its Lagrangian term is . Hence cancellation requiresup to an arbitrary finite subtraction specifying the renormalization scheme. No external momentum occurs in the tadpole, so no one-loop wave-function renormalization is needed. At the unregulated tadpole is scaleless and vanishes in dimensional regularization; the massive calculation identifies the mass-dependent ultraviolet pole without conflating it with a massless infrared limit.
For completeness, the signs of the four-point graphs in this effective-action convention can be read from the Euclidean one-loop functional . Its expansion has terms and . Differentiating four times givesThis is the Euclidean form, analytically continued to the physical external momenta. It confirms the three channel diagrams and their symmetry factors; evaluating its divergence is not needed for the requested mass counterterm.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 50 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Yukawa interaction has one real-scalar leg and an oriented fermion line at each vertex. At lowest connected order, two vertices exchange one scalar, so the diagrams are of order .
For two incoming fermions, there are two pairings of the outgoing fermions: the channel joins to and to , with scalar momentum ; the channel joins to and to , with scalar momentum . Fermion number conservation excludes an annihilation channel for two particles carrying the same charge.
For an incoming fermion and antiparticle, there is a -channel scalar exchange with momentum and an -channel annihilation and recreation diagram with momentum . Arrows on antiparticle lines run opposite to the direction of physical propagation. These are the four tree scattering in Yukawa theory diagrams shown below; all external momenta are labelled.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 50 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Antiparticles are positive-energy quanta of relativistic quantum fields, not physical particles with negative energies. The negative-frequency part of a quantum field creates these quanta; the distinction between its classical frequency and a state's excitation energy is central to their interpretation.
For a real scalar field, Hermiticity identifies the two frequency branches:There is one species of excitation. Its particle is its own antiparticle; a single Hermitian scalar cannot carry the nonzero continuous phase charge of a complex field. This does not prevent self-conjugate particles from having other quantum numbers.
A complex scalar field is not Hermitian. Its two independent sets of oscillators giveThe canonical commutation relations make and create different positive-energy species. With charge convention fixed by , normal ordering givesThus and have the same mass and spin but opposite charge. Although has negative classical frequency, , so it creates a positive-energy excitation. Two real scalar fields can be combined into one complex field; the particle–antiparticle basis diagonalizes the conserved phase charge. Neutrality alone does not require a particle to be self-conjugate.
Locality explains why both branches occur. For the complex scalar field,At spacelike separation, Lorentz invariance of the mass shell measure permits a frame with equal times; reversing makes the two terms cancel. This is microcausality. If the antiparticle creation term were omitted, the commutator would be just a Wightman function, generally nonzero at spacelike separation. For example, for a massless scalar at equal times and separation , it is . The cancellation is the role of antiparticle modes and spacelike commutativity. In a real scalar field its self-conjugate creation modes supply the same cancellation.
A nonrelativistic particle field obeys a first-order time equation and need not contain an antiparticle-creation branch. For example,allows an expansion using only in ; its adjoint creates those particles. The basic theory conserves particle number and does not impose a Lorentz-invariant light cone locality condition. It often arises from a relativistic quantum field by factoring out the rest-energy oscillation and restricting to a low-energy particle sector, where creation of particle–antiparticle pairs costs roughly . An antiparticle species can certainly also be treated nonrelativistically with its own field; antiparticles are simply not forced by this nonrelativistic quantum field equation.
Historically, the Dirac equation has one-particle energy branches . Treating both as ordinary electron energies would leave no lowest-energy one-particle vacuum: an electron could fall through arbitrarily negative levels. The Dirac sea interpretation fills every negative-energy electron level. The Pauli exclusion principle then blocks further occupation. A missing negative-energy electron is a hole: removing energy increases energy by , and removing charge leaves charge . This predicts the positron's mass, spin and opposite electric charge.
The quantum field theory account quantizes a Dirac field instead:The independent particle and antiparticle operators obey canonical anticommutation relations. Before normal ordering, the negative-frequency contribution to the Dirac Hamiltonian has the form . Anticommutation rewrites it as plus a vacuum constant. Removing the constant leaves positive particle and antiparticle energies. The charge has opposite signs on the two occupation numbers, and interactions permit pair creation and annihilation while conserving the relevant charges.
There is therefore no need for a literal infinitely populated material sea. The hole picture is a useful fermionic reinterpretation, but it cannot explain bosonic antiparticles through filled-level exclusion, since bosons can multiply occupy a state. Canonical quantization of a complex scalar field supplies them just as consistently. More generally charge conjugation relates field representations with opposite internal charges; real scalar fields and Majorana fermions are self-conjugate exceptions. The relativistic Fock space description handles these cases, statistics and changing particle number within one framework.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 53 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
There is a sign inconsistency in the printed model. For the ordinary cross product let . The vector triple-product identity gives . Consequently the printed has gauge curvatureIts gauge curvature cannot instead contain the printed negative quadratic term. For a noncommuting pure gauge potential for this gauge covariant derivative, whereas . Thus the printed gauge kinetic term assigns a nonzero value to a connection obtained by applying the gauge-field transformation law to the zero connection. Literally the printed action has global rotations but not the requested local triplet gauge symmetry. The cross-product convention for an adjoint covariant derivative makes the minimal repair explicit: change the gauge field strength quadratic term to a plus sign, retaining the printed gauge covariant derivative. Changing the sign in the gauge covariant derivative instead would be another consistent convention. The remaining calculation uses the first repair.
The corrected theory has local SO(3) gauge symmetry, equivalently the adjoint-field realization of the SU(2) Lie algebra; its adjoint scalar fields and gauge fields are insensitive to the center of a group of SU(2). Explicitly, andBoth and transform as triplets, so their dot products and the scalar potential are invariant. Assume , and take without loss of generality. For the minima have . Choose the scalar-field vacuum , whose stabilizer consists of rotations around the third axis: the residual gauge symmetry is SO(2), locally U(1).
In unitary gauge write , and . These are the neutral massless gauge field, two charged massive gauge fields and a real radial scalar field. DefineSubstitution gives and . The entire physical-field Lagrangian density is thereforeIn particular ; this directly verifies the scalar field kinetic and vector mass terms. Expanding the scalar potential gives . Comparing the quadratic terms with standard real scalar field and charged-vector mass terms yields the adjoint triplet Higgs spectrum,This also rewrites the purely vector interactions, which are already contained in the displayed gauge field strengths rather than omitted from the theory.
The original symmetry remains unbroken at . The unique minimum is then , with three massless gauge fields and three massless real scalar field components; the quartic scalar field interaction remains. The physical degrees of freedom number . At the two broken generators supply two Goldstone bosons, eaten to give longitudinal gauge-boson polarizations of the charged vectors. The physical count is : two massive vectors, one massless vector and one radial scalar field. The scalar components eaten in unitary gauge are not additional physical particles.
For the broken phase all interactions containing the physical scalar field areMultiplying interaction coefficients by and differentiating with respect to the external fields includes the identical-field factorials. The scalar vertices of an adjoint triplet Higgs model areFor example, the rule contains , whereas the rule contains only from its two identical scalar fields. There are no or vertices: the radial scalar field is neutral under the residual U(1). There is no derivative scalar-vector vertex in this physical spectrum in unitary gauge.
All physical-scalar interaction vertices in the broken triplet Higgs model, with the unbroken-phase scalar vertices shown below; dashed lines are scalars and wavy lines are vectors
. Details. For completeness, if the unbroken phase is chosen, its physical scalar fields are the three components , not a single radial . Expanding its gauge-covariant kinetic term givesWith all momenta incoming and Fourier transform convention , the three unbroken-phase rules areThe first rule follows by differentiating once on each possible scalar: for , the interaction is , which fixes the momentum sign. The remaining rules follow from the quadratic gauge interaction and . There are no unbroken-phase cubic scalar field Feynman vertices.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 44 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use natural units and the Minkowski metric . The canonical momentum is , and the Legendre transform in mechanics givesFor canonical quantization of a real scalar field, impose the equal-time canonical commutation relationsThe Heisenberg picture equation then gives . For the other equation, the momentum term commutes with ; commuting the gradient term past and integrating the derivative of the Dirac delta function by parts gives . ConsequentlyThe Fourier transform reduces this Klein-Gordon equation to oscillators of frequency . Hermiticity of the real scalar field pairs their positive- and negative-frequency coefficients, so its general mode expansion can be normalized asTo verify its normalization rather than guess the oscillator algebra, use scalar field oscillator inversion at :Its adjoint has the conjugate phase and the opposite sign in front of . The two mixed field-momentum commutators giveThe Fourier representation of the Dirac delta function sets the energies equal in the last step. Similarly, has a factor multiplying and vanishes; the two-creator commutator vanishes as well.
Substituting the expansion in and integrating the spatial phases, the two-annihilator and two-creator coefficients cancel by . The free real scalar Hamiltonian in oscillator variables isIt differs from by its constant vacuum energy; normal ordering removes that constant. Using the oscillator commutators, for either Hamiltonian,Choose the Fock vacuum annihilated by every . Each creation operator adds a particle of energy and momentum ; its annihilation operator removes one. Their mutual commutativity gives bosonic Fock space and symmetric many-particle states. Thus the scalar mass-shell frequency has a particle interpretation, rather than merely describing a classical oscillation.
For and , vacuum contraction and time ordering give the Feynman propagatorIn the scalar Feynman propagator pole prescription, the integral of has poles at and . Close clockwise below for and counterclockwise above for . The residue theorem gives exactly the corresponding term above, provingAs a direct check of the distributional source, is continuous, but . The derivative jump of a free scalar time-ordered two-point function therefore gives . Spatial Fourier inversion yields
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 41 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use natural units and the Minkowski metric . For the real scalar field, choose . The conjugate momentum is . Under an active translation , the density changes by . The Noether theorem therefore gives the canonical stress-energy tensorIts divergence is , which vanishes on the Klein-Gordon equation. With vanishing flux at spatial infinity, the charges are conserved. In particular,The minus sign is required because and . These are the four-momentum of a free real scalar field.
For canonical quantization, impose , with both equal-time field-field commutators zero. Inverting the mode expansion givesThe equal-time canonical commutation relation then yieldsFor example, the two mixed field-momentum terms in the first commutator have coefficients and ; the delta function sets their sum to one.
Insert the mode expansion into the quadratic energy. Spatial integration supplies . In the and terms, the coefficient is proportional to . The remaining terms giveHere is the divergent zero-point energy, formally . Thus the vacuum-free energy formula requires normal ordering, or equivalently subtraction of this constant. In a finite box with a cutoff this is the ordinary sum , so the subtraction is explicit before passing to the continuum.
Likewise, use the Hermitian momentum expression . Terms containing two annihilators or two creators vanish by antisymmetry under , leaving the symmetric number-operator expression. Its vacuum term is zero with an inversion-symmetric regulator. Therefore the normal-ordered free scalar four-momentum isThe creation operator commutators follow directly from :Starting from a vacuum annihilated by every , each creation adds a particle of mass , energy and momentum . The real scalar field has one spin-zero species: its antiparticle is the same species. Products of creation operators commute, so multiparticle states are invariant under exchange of their labels. In a normalized discrete mode, exists for every ; there is no exclusion restriction. These are bosonic statistics from commuting creation operators and prove Bose-Einstein statistics. For completeness, the single-mode thermal sum gives , the Bose-Einstein distribution at zero chemical potential.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 47 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
To keep the paper's coupling convention explicit, write and use physical coordinates , . Assume and weak coupling . The canonical real scalar field is , and the physical potential isThe symbol is the coupling usually appearing in canonical Sine-Gordon theory; the paper's is its square. The vacua have . A static Sine-Gordon kink has and satisfies . Since , its classical mass isThe topological sector is important: this energy is measured relative to a vacuum, and the kink joins distinct vacua at the two spatial ends. Expanding around a spatially constant vacuum cannot construct this state by any finite-order perturbation in .
For the general one-loop soliton mass correction, start with a canonical scalar field potential and a stable static soliton . Write . The term linear in vanishes by the classical Euler-Lagrange field equation. The quadratic fluctuation Hamiltonian isChoose a common large box and a common finite-mode regularization in quantum field theory. Expand the nonzero normal modes as , with and normalized eigenfunctions. Each pair is a quantum harmonic oscillator contributing ground-state energy . In the vacuum, replace by . Subtract the two ground-state energies and add the local counterterms evaluated on the soliton relative to the vacuum. This derives the general formulaThe prime excludes exact zero modes in field theory from oscillator quantization; their zero frequencies contribute no zero-point energy, but their role in mode counting must not be forgotten. The two sums mean a paired finite regulator, not separate subtractions of divergent answers. Equivalently the nonzero-mode term is the regulated difference of the square-root traces of the two fluctuation operators. Discrete bound states and continuum modes both contribute. This is a vacuum-subtracted soliton mass and the first term in the semiclassical soliton mass expansion.
Translation gives a zero mode in field theory because differentiating the static equation yields . A Gaussian oscillator or an unprimed functional determinant is inappropriate along this flat direction. Replace its amplitude by the position collective coordinate and require the residual fluctuation to obey , preventing double counting. The associated change-of-variables Jacobian supplies the zero-mode normalization. At low speed the collective-coordinate effective Lagrangian for a soliton is ; quantizing the position gives the soliton momentum and its translational states, not an extra oscillator rest energy. More generally, every physical continuous modulus needs a collective coordinate; gauge directions require gauge fixing rather than additional physical states.
The Sine-Gordon kink fluctuation operator is particularly simple:while . This supersymmetric factorization of the one-soliton potential shows stability and generates all nonzero eigenfunctions from vacuum plane waves. The sole normalizable bound state is the translational zero mode of a sine-Gordon kink, proportional to ; there is no positive-frequency internal bound oscillator. The continuum has and no reflection. Applying to gives a transmission amplitudeThis scattering phase shift changes the density of continuum modes. The high-frequency vacuum subtraction cancels the extensive vacuum contribution but still leaves a logarithmic ultraviolet divergence.
The finite part also requires consistent mode-number regularization of soliton masses. The periodic-box phase-shift quantization condition is . Match modes: the kink has its translation mode plus the two continuum modes at each , while the vacuum has the oscillator of frequency and the corresponding continuum pairs. With and , expanding givesIntegration by parts uses and yieldsThe cutoff surface term for a Sine-Gordon kink tends to . It cannot be dropped merely because : grows at the same time.
A renormalization condition must specify which mass and coupling are held fixed. For vacuum normal ordering, or cancellation of the vacuum tadpole diagram with the elementary mass fixed at , the quartic interaction gives the mass countertermEvaluating this Sine-Gordon vacuum tadpole counterterm on the kink givesThe logarithmic ultraviolet divergence cancels, leaving the renormalized one-loop Sine-Gordon kink mass in the stated vacuum scheme:This example illustrates why a zero mode in field theory must be treated as a collective coordinate, why vacuum subtraction alone need not remove ultraviolet divergences, and why the finite relation between the two regulators matters. Different finite counterterms amount to different definitions of the renormalized parameters; an unregulated frequency difference without a renormalization condition is not a physical mass prediction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 40 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Keep the mostly-plus Minkowski metric and the Fourier transform . Write , with . To fix the otherwise unspecified phase of and the Dirac adjoint, takewhere are ordinary mostly-minus gamma matrices. Then , , and the fermionic time-derivative term is . In these conventions the interaction with real is Hermitian: in mostly-minus notation it is . If one instead calls the square-one chirality matrix, its coefficient must be to represent the same interaction. These phase choices leave physical relativistic scattering cross-sections unchanged.
Expanding yields the following Feynman rules with relativistically normalized external states:
- A real scalar field line carrying four-momentum contributes .
- An oriented Dirac field line contributes the Dirac propagatorThis follows from .
- Each pseudoscalar Yukawa interaction vertex has one scalar leg, one incoming fermion arrow and one outgoing fermion arrow, and contributes . It also contributes with all vertex momenta counted incoming.
- External incoming particles contribute and outgoing particles . External incoming antiparticles contribute and outgoing antiparticles , with the corresponding fermion arrows. External scalar factors are one. Choose , , and ; all external momenta are on the appropriate mass shell.
- Integrate each independent loop four-momentum with . Keep matrix factors in their order along a fermion line, take a trace around a closed fermion loop, and include a minus sign for each closed fermion loop. Permuting external identical fermions contributes the corresponding fermionic sign; the Wick theorem determines the Feynman-diagram symmetry factors.
Strip the overall four-momentum conservation delta function when defining the scattering amplitude. There are no further bare interaction vertices, no gauge fixing and no Faddeev-Popov ghost fields in this theory. Renormalized higher-order calculations add the required counterterms; these are additional to the rules of the displayed classical Lagrangian density.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 40 3 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Apply the Grassmann Gaussian integral to a regulated finite collection of field components. Up to a field-independent measure normalization and phase,In the continuum this is a formal functional determinant, including spinor and spacetime indices. Its meaningful definition requires a regulator and boundary conditions. A complex Dirac field supplies a determinant, not the inverse square root obtained for a real commuting field.
The comparison is clean after Wick rotation. A free real scalar field with positive Euclidean operator hasTaking a logarithm gives for the scalar and for the Dirac field. The opposite statistics sign is the determinant counterpart of the minus sign for a closed fermion loop. The magnitude also differs because a Dirac field has several independent spin and antiparticle degrees of freedom.
The vacuum energy sign of a fermionic oscillator makes the comparison explicit. A real scalar mode contributes ; each independent fermionic oscillator contributes . There is one oscillator per scalar momentum, but a massive Dirac field has two particle and two antiparticle oscillators. Thus the vacuum energy densities are formallyEquivalently, the large Euclidean-time vacuum functional behaves as . Both displayed vacuum energies are ultraviolet divergent; a common regularization in quantum field theory and the appropriate renormalization are needed before comparing them. The zero-point vacuum energies of bosons and fermions have opposite signs, but do not cancel without matching masses and degrees of freedom. Normal ordering removes an additive vacuum constant in nongravitating flat-space theory. Coupling to the metric in general relativity makes that constant contribute to the cosmological constant, so it cannot simply be discarded without a renormalization condition.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 40 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For the real scalar field, the mostly-plus Minkowski metric gives a positive kinetic energy. Its canonical momentum and Hamiltonian operator areThe Euler-Lagrange field equation is , or . Canonical quantization of a real scalar field promotes the fields to Hermitian operators and replaces the equal-time Poisson brackets by canonical commutation relations:The Heisenberg equation of motion then gives and , so the classical field equation remains an operator identity. Products at coincident points need a regulator; equivalently, the field is an operator-valued distribution.
Resolve the free field into positive- and negative-frequency plane waves. With and ,Reality pairs the two terms by Hermitian conjugation. The equal-time canonical commutation relations are equivalent toFor example, the two mixed terms in each supply half the Dirac delta function. Thus the normalization is fixed, not optional. Each independent mode is a quantum harmonic oscillator, with and its annihilation operator and creation operator.
Choose the Fock vacuum by . Repeated creation operators construct the bosonic Fock space. Substitution into the Hamiltonian operator yieldswhere a finite volume can be used as a regulator. Normal ordering sets the flat-space vacuum reference to zero. The spatial momentum operator isIn particular, and . A one-particle state therefore has positive energy, momentum , and invariant mass . A scalar field transforms in the trivial spin representation, so its particles have spin zero. Because the field is real there is only one set of oscillators: the particle is its own antiparticle, with no distinct conserved particle-minus-antiparticle charge. The free theory does conserve its occupation-number sum, though generic scalar interactions need not.
A momentum eigenstate extends throughout space. A localized particle is described by a superposition such asIts wave packet evolves through the phase ; a narrow packet has group velocity , whose magnitude is at most one. Localization and dispersion concern these superpositions, rather than classical trajectories attached to individual field modes.
Relativistic spacetime behavior is encoded by microcausality. Directly from the oscillator commutators,This is a Lorentz-invariant distribution and vanishes at equal time. Any spacelike separation can be transformed to an equal-time separation, so for spacelike . Thus local operations at spacelike-separated points commute. The vacuum Wightman function need not vanish outside the light cone, but that correlation does not transmit a controllable signal. The Feynman propagator iswhich propagates positive energy forward and negative energy backward in the time-ordered product. For causal response one uses the retarded Green function, whose support lies in or on the future light cone.
Finally, commuting creation operators implyThe multiparticle state is symmetric under the particle exchange operator, which is Bose statistics. For a normalized single mode, the occupation states are with : any number of identical bosons can occupy it. There is no Pauli exclusion principle for these particles. This construction agrees with the Spin-statistics theorem relating integer spin to bosonic exchange symmetry under relativistic locality and positive-energy assumptions. It demonstrates the required scalar case without assuming that theorem as the quantization prescription.
The quantized real scalar field describes positive-energy, mass-, spin-zero bosons that are their own antiparticles; commuting creation operators give Bose statistics, and local field commutators enforce microcausality.



