Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 48 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the momentum-space Feynman rules with all momenta conserved at each vertex. The free scalar propagator, free Dirac propagator and pseudoscalar Yukawa interaction vertex are respectivelyThe Dirac propagator follows by multiplying the inverse kinetic matrix by , using the Clifford algebra to obtain . The vertex follows by expanding once: there is no factorial because it has one scalar and two distinct spinor field factors. An internal scalar has no spinor indices; an internal fermion line carries the displayed matrix with its momentum directed along fermion flow.
These rules use the coefficient exactly as printed. With the standard Hermitian , the Hermiticity of a pseudoscalar Dirac bilinear gives . A Hermitian physical interaction therefore requires ; writing with real changes the vertex to . This convention issue does not alter the formal rules above, and no unstated real-coupling assumption is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 48 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Label the incoming momenta and spin states and the outgoing ones , with . Write and . The Mandelstam variables are , and . At lowest order, each connected Feynman diagram has two pseudoscalar Yukawa interaction vertices and one internal scalar propagator.
The t and u exchanges for two fermions, and the t exchange and s annihilation for a fermion-antifermion pair, with external momentum and spin labels
. Details. Define the scattering amplitude by . Fix the external Fock state ordering as to for the two-fermion process. The exchange connects to and to ; the exchange connects to and to . The two Feynman vertices contribute , and the internal scalar propagator contributes divided by its denominator. Exchanging the two identical final fermions supplies a relative fermionic sign. ThusThis changes sign when the two outgoing labels are exchanged, as identical-fermion antisymmetry requires. There is no annihilation diagram for two incoming fermions: the interaction preserves Dirac fermion number conservation.
For the fermion-antifermion process take initial state and final state . The exchange uses bilinears , and the annihilation uses . To fix the sign without a guess, expand the current in creation and annihilation operators. Its relevant terms have the signsThe antifermion sign of a normal-ordered bilinear makes the exchange contraction negative, whereas the product of annihilation and creation contractions is positive for the specified external ordering. Multiplying by therefore givesA different common phase convention for an external state can reverse the overall amplitude, but never the relative sign of its two contributions. Both results are tree scattering with pseudoscalar exchange and are of order .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 48 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The superficial degree of divergence is the power of a common large-momentum scale obtained by scaling all independent internal momenta together, before cancellations or subtraction of divergent subdiagrams. In a scalar field theory with a standard quadratic kinetic term and non-derivative interactions, each loop momentum integral supplies powers of momentum and each internal propagator supplies minus two. ThusFor a connected Feynman diagram, counting vertex half-edges and applying the stated identity for the loop order givesIt follows that . Meanwhile, . Substitution provesThis power counting in quantum field theory concerns the overall scaling: even a Feynman diagram with can contain divergent subdiagrams, and cancellations may improve convergence when .
The canonical mass dimensions are and . A finite polynomial scalar field theory has power-counting renormalizability when its interactions have nonnegative mass dimensions and the allowed local counterterms form a finite set closed under subtraction of divergent subdiagrams. For , non-derivative interactions therefore satisfy . Equivalently,so adding vertices of such interactions cannot force an indefinitely increasing number of external legs or derivatives in divergent counterterms. In dimensions a fixed finite polynomial still has this favorable power counting in quantum field theory; the displayed upper bound on is intended only for .
For six-dimensional cubic scalar field theory, and yieldThe coupling has zero mass dimension. The possible overall divergences have : vacuum energy, a linear tadpole diagram term, a mass term, a kinetic term, and a cubic interaction. These are finitely many local counterterms. Divergent subdiagrams of higher-point Feynman diagrams are removed by the same counterterms, establishing perturbative renormalizability of cubic scalar theory in six dimensions. A real cubic potential is unbounded below, so this claim is one of perturbative quantum field theory, not a claim that the polynomial defines a stable nonperturbative vacuum.
After Wick rotation, use the Euclidean action with positive kinetic and mass terms and interaction . The Euclidean momentum-space Feynman rules are: an internal scalar propagator , a vertex , momentum conservation at each vertex, integration for each independent loop, and division by the Feynman-diagram symmetry factor. Strip the overall momentum-conserving delta function and external propagators when computing an amputated Green's function.
The one-particle-irreducible two-point vertex at one loop is the bubble:
Interchanging its two internal lines is an automorphism, giving Feynman-diagram symmetry factor two. In the normalization of the printed Minkowski amputated Green's function, the two vertices contribute , the two internal propagators contribute , and Wick rotation supplies the overall already factored out there. Thus the Euclidean bubble contribution isFor this self-energy calculation we impose a vanishing one-point function, so tadpole diagram insertions are canceled by the linear counterterm. Without that convention a connected but one-particle-reducible Feynman diagram with a tadpole insertion is also possible: both external legs attach to one vertex, a zero-momentum line joins it to a second vertex, and that second vertex has a self-loop. Its amputated contribution is , independent of . It is not the bubble drawn above; keeping it without a tadpole subtraction would add this constant to the full amputated answer.
To find the bubble's local divergence, put and expand at large :Odd terms vanish under the angular integral. Rotational symmetry gives . The terms through order are thereforeand the coefficient approaches . Terms of order and higher are integrable at infinity in six dimensions; subtracting the two displayed terms leaves an ultraviolet-convergent integral. Hence the divergent part is a local polynomial , with momentum-independent coefficients. For example, when its logarithmically divergent coefficient isChanging the reference scale in this logarithm only changes a finite local term.
At zero external momentum the spherical ultraviolet cutoff and giveWith , integrate . This gives the momentum-cutoff two-point function in six-dimensional cubic scalar theoryIn particular, the divergent part of this constant iswhile the last term in tends to a finite constant. For the zero-momentum integral gives directly. The finite parts of a local subtraction can depend on the regularization prescription; the conclusion about mass and kinetic counterterms does not.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 40 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use hypercharge normalized by , and express all matter fermions as left-handed Weyl spinors. Thus denote the charge conjugates of the right-handed Standard Model fermions; the superscript is unrelated to the antiparticle marker . Each chiral superfield contains a complex scalar field and a Weyl spinor, while each vector superfield contains a gauge boson and a gaugino. The complete propagating content of the Minimal supersymmetric Standard Model before electroweak symmetry breaking is:
Table 1.
Propagating MSSM fields before electroweak symmetry breaking
. | Sector | Component field | representation | Spin | Families or copies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| , quark Weyl spinors | ||||
| , squarks | ||||
| , quark Weyl spinor | ||||
| , squark | ||||
| , quark Weyl spinor | ||||
| , squark | ||||
| , lepton Weyl spinors | ||||
| , sleptons | ||||
| , lepton Weyl spinor | ||||
| , slepton | ||||
| , Higgs complex scalar fields | ||||
| , higgsinos | ||||
| , Higgs complex scalar fields | ||||
| , higgsinos | ||||
| Color vector multiplet | , gluons | adjoint, | ||
| Color vector multiplet | , gluinos | adjoint, | ||
| Weak vector multiplet | , weak gauge bosons | adjoint, | ||
| Weak vector multiplet | , winos | adjoint, | ||
| Hypercharge vector multiplet | , hypercharge gauge boson | |||
| Hypercharge vector multiplet | , bino |
The marker means that conjugate antiparticle states must also be counted: a charged Weyl spinor has a particle helicity and a distinct antiparticle helicity, and a complex scalar field has particle and antiparticle excitations. The real adjoint gauge bosons and adjoint Majorana fermions already contain their conjugate states, so no extra marker is attached to them. For example, the charged combinations are both contained in the one real weak triplet. There are no right-handed-neutrino chiral superfields, no gravitino, and no propagating auxiliary fields in this field table. The matter sector has gauge components; the two Higgs chiral doublets add four. Thus the count is , before mass effects are considered.
R-parity is the multiplicative discrete quantum number , with baryon number , lepton number and spin . Ordinary quarks, leptons, Higgs scalars and gauge bosons have ; their sparticles have . For superfields the equivalent rule is matter parity : are odd, and and the gauge superfields are even. With contracting weak indices and implicit color contractions, the renormalizable R-parity-conserving MSSM superpotential isSigns of the three Yukawa couplings can be absorbed into their matrices. Every term has even matter parity and zero hypercharge; holomorphy requires the two independent Higgs chiral doublets, rather than using in a superpotential.
Conserved R-parity forces an even number of odd particles in a process whose incoming particles are all ordinary particles, so colliders produce sparticles in pairs or another even multiplicity. Their decay chains end in the stable lightest supersymmetric particle. A neutral, weakly interacting lightest supersymmetric particle, commonly a neutralino after electroweak symmetry breaking, escapes the detector and gives missing transverse momentum; it is also a possible dark matter constituent. Stability alone does not establish its relic abundance, and a charged or colored stable lightest supersymmetric particle is not the usual viable dark matter candidate. Conserved R-parity forbids the renormalizable interactions responsible for the decay below. It does not by itself forbid higher-dimensional proton-decay operators: the superpotential operators and have even matter parity. Thus the renormalizable R-parity-conserving MSSM protects the proton, while ultraviolet physics can still induce its decay.
The gauge-invariant renormalizable R-parity-violating superpotential isHere and because of the weak and color antisymmetric contractions. The first two trilinear terms and the bilinear term violate lepton number, whereas the term violates baryon number. The are dimensionless and has mass dimension one.
For a concrete squark-mediated proton decay channel, take and nonzero. Antisymmetry allows these indices: the exchanged scalar is a strange squark, not a repeated down flavor in . Two quarks in the proton undergo ; the spectator combines with into the component of . The baryon-violating Feynman vertex and lepton-violating Feynman vertex give .
At momenta small compared with the squark mass , its scalar propagator is of order . Eliminating it generates a dimension-six four-fermion proton-decay operator, schematically , with coefficient . Consequently the dimensionless decay amplitude is of order , and phase space supplies one more power of to the width:This is a dimensional estimate; phase-space constants and hadronic matrix elements change its coefficient, not its fourth-power dependence on . For order-one couplings and , the stated lifetime limit is . Therefore , giving .
Such a mass is incompatible with the intended weak-scale MSSM explanation of the hierarchy problem: squarks that cancel the Higgs-sector sensitivity to high scales must not introduce a new enormous splitting from their light quark partners. For example, with order-one couplings would give only . The field content alone does not mathematically prohibit extremely heavy superpartners, but that choice sacrifices the weak-scale naturalness motivation. The usual resolution is conserved R-parity, or sufficiently suppressed simultaneous baryon number and lepton number violation, rather than making the exchanged squark this heavy.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 44 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Choose in Euclidean signature. The inverse quadratic kernel is the smooth-cutoff scalar propagatorThe subscript records the explicit cutoff dependence implied by the condition at small . For , this reduces to , the usual Euclidean scalar propagator. For , the kernel grows rapidly and its inverse tends to zero.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 46 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The cubic scalar field theory has a one-particle-irreducible Feynman diagram with two cubic vertices, one external leg at each vertex, and two internal lines joining them:
The Euclidean Feynman rule for each cubic interaction vertex is : the minus sign comes from expanding , and in the action cancels the permutations of its three fields. The mass dimension of the cubic coupling is , so permits to remain dimensionless. Two vertices supply .
Each internal scalar propagator contributes with its own momentum. Conservation leaves one independent loop momentum; choose the two propagator momenta to be and . The remaining Fourier integration measure is . Finally, the factor is the Feynman-diagram symmetry factor for exchanging the two identical internal lines. Direct Wick contraction counting gives the same factor: two choices for which vertex receives a labeled external leg, choices of the incident fields and pairings of the remaining fields, divided by , yield .
The displayed loop integral is the amputated two-point insertion. For the correction to the full propagator, multiply it by the external scalar propagators, giving with .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 304 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the Euclidean path integral with weight and Fourier transform convention . The momentum-space Feynman rules are: an internal scalar propagator ; a quartic vertex together with for incoming momenta; and an integral over each independent loop momentum. Multiply by the Feynman-diagram symmetry factor; external propagators are retained for a full correlation function and removed for an amputated connected correlation function.
To enumerate the requested one-particle-irreducible Feynman diagrams, let be the number of quartic vertices and the number of internal edges. Four external legs imply , while one loop order implies . Thus . Both internal edges must connect the two vertices: an alternative with a tadpole and one connecting edge would disconnect on cutting that edge. The only graphs are therefore the three pairings of labelled external legs, each with Feynman-diagram symmetry factor .
The corresponding channel momenta are , , and , with all external momenta incoming. This exhausts the connected one-loop four-point one-particle-irreducible Feynman diagrams.
For the Euclidean massive loop integral, first take and an integer , where the integral converges. Schwinger parameterization givesThe supplied Gaussian integral then yieldsIntegrating over , and using the Gamma function recurrence to obtain , provesOutside its initial convergence range, the right-hand side defines the meromorphic continuation used in dimensional regularization; the divergent ordinary integral is not being assigned a convergent value.
For the scalar bubble integral, the Feynman parameter identity followed by a translation of loop momentum givesWith , the Gamma function satisfies , and the parameter integral tends to one. Hence the ultraviolet pole is independent of external momentum:One can also see why the same pole occurs without introducing a Feynman parameter: at large , the difference between this integrand and is ultraviolet integrable near four dimensions, so both have the same dimensional regularization pole. The positive mass avoids an infrared ambiguity in this argument.
In the quantum effective action convention, the tree-level four-point vertex is , the negative of the amputated connected correlation function tree vertex. The three bubble corrections giveThus the pole counterterm is . The modified minimal subtraction scheme also subtracts the conventional finite combination, or equivalently absorbs it into the subtraction-scale convention; that does not change the one-loop renormalization-group beta function. Using that scale convention, writeHere is dimensionless, , and the conventional constant scale factor is implicit. The one-loop tadpole is momentum independent, so wave-function renormalization does not contribute at this order. Differentiating at fixed , with , gives . ThereforeFor the stable quartic scalar field theory, with , the one-loop quartic scalar beta function is positive: the running coupling increases toward the ultraviolet and decreases toward the infrared. The theory is not asymptotically free; extrapolating the one-loop flow gives a Landau pole.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2016 4 a Solution 2026-10-25
For incoming four-momenta, the momentum-space Feynman rules in the chosen Minkowski metric convention are:
- Each internal line contributes the scalar propagator .
- Each quartic interaction vertex contributes and for momentum conservation.
- Each independent loop momentum is integrated with ; after eliminating redundant Dirac delta functions, one overall conservation factor remains.
- Each graph is divided by its symmetry factor , with external labels held fixed.
There is one connected one-loop one-particle irreducible two-point graph: a single quartic vertex with two external lines and one tadpole diagram. Its symmetry factor is from interchange of the two loop half-edges.
There are three connected one-loop one-particle irreducible four-point graphs: two quartic vertices joined by two parallel internal lines, with external partitions , and . These are the , and scattering channels; each bubble diagram has symmetry factor . External-branch insertions are excluded by the one-particle irreducible requirement.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2018 2 b Solution 2026-10-25
Expand the normalized Euclidean path integral with weight and apply Wick's theorem. Use labelled external momenta and a fixed Fourier transform convention throughout. A line carrying momentum contributes . Each -valent interaction vertex contributes : its possible contractions cancel the factorial in the Lagrangian density. A vertex also carries with all incident momenta incoming. Integrate each independent loop momentum with and divide by the Feynman-diagram symmetry factor for fixed external labels. There are no Minkowski factors of .
For the full -point Green's function, include every graph in which all vertices belong to components attached to external insertions. In particular, disconnected components carrying external insertions must be included, and the zeroth-order result is the sum of free pairings. Pure vacuum bubbles cancel against the denominator. The connected Green's function restricts to connected graphs, while a one-particle-irreducible vertex imposes the stronger restriction that removing one internal line cannot disconnect the graph. These are different objects. Odd vanishes in the symmetric vacuum because every interaction has even valence. At fixed perturbative order, multiply by the appropriate power of the coupling and sum all allowed graph topologies and external attachments.
If the overall momentum-conservation delta function is removed by convention, report the remaining function as its coefficient. The ordinary unamputated Green's function includes external scalar propagators; dividing them out defines an amputated function. The definition in c performs this amputation but does not, by itself, impose the usual one-particle-irreducibility condition.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2019 2 a Solution 2026-10-25
Use the Fourier transform convention , and similarly for . All four-momenta at an interaction vertex are incoming. The quadratic terms are diagonal, so the scalar propagators areThe field interaction terms are and . The two identical field slots cancel the factor at either cubic interaction vertex. Expanding therefore givesIn the second rule are specifically the two four-momenta; there is no derivative acting on the leg. Indeed the two derivatives give , fixing the minus sign. This is a mixed scalar derivative cubic vertex. For arbitrary off-shell legs one may equivalently write , but may not replace the squared four-momenta by squared masses unless those legs are on their mass shells.
Each interaction vertex also carries for momentum conservation. Integrate independent loop momenta with and divide by the Feynman-diagram symmetry factor. An amputated external scalar leg has factor 1. The Feynman i-epsilon prescription fixes the propagator poles. As a dimensional check in four spacetime dimensions, , and in mass dimensions; the two powers of momentum in the derivative rule restore mass dimension one for its cubic interaction vertex.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2019 2 b Solution 2026-10-25
Let denote the incoming four-momenta and the outgoing four-momenta. Thus , and . Define the Mandelstam variables and exchanged four-momenta byThe leading connected four-point scattering amplitude uses two cubic interaction vertices. There are four tree-level Feynman diagrams: and exchange of with two vertices, and and exchange of with two vertices.
The four tree channels for mixed-scalar scattering. Blue solid lines represent and orange dashed lines . External momenta are incoming on the left and outgoing on the right; crossings have no vertex.
Details. There is no term proportional to : one vertex of each kind has three field slots of each species altogether, whereas the external state uses two of each. This leaves one and one to contract internally, and their mixed scalar propagator is zero. There is also no channel: grouping both external legs at one vertex would require a vertex with an internal , while grouping both external legs at the other would require a vertex with an internal .
Define after removing the overall momentum conservation delta function. The nonderivative exchange givesFor the derivative channel, the incoming four-momenta at the first vertex are , and at the second they are . The two interaction vertices are therefore and . The same reasoning with applies to the channel, givingThe mass shell conditions and momentum conservation implyCombining the four Feynman diagrams therefore yieldsEach displayed tree-level Feynman diagram has Feynman-diagram symmetry factor 1 for fixed external species and labels. The result is of order ; if both couplings are scaled by a common parameter , the next connected corrections begin at order . A four-point cubic Feynman diagram has , so its vertex count is even. The internal lines remain off shell throughout: imposing an on-shell relation on an exchanged four-momentum would incorrectly change the derivative vertices.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2020 1 a Solution 2026-10-25
For four-momentum flowing along the fermion flow, the momentum space Feynman rules areThe scalar propagator and Dirac propagator invert their respective quadratic kernels. The interaction vertex follows by expanding , fixing its sign. Species is conserved along each open fermion line; there is no vertex changing species 1 into species 2.
An interaction vertex carries with inward four-momenta. Impose momentum conservation and integrate each independent loop momentum with . Include the closed fermion loop sign for every fermion loop, the relevant fermionic signs when rearranging external states, and the Feynman-diagram symmetry factor. External incoming and outgoing fermions carry and ; incoming and outgoing antifermions carry and . An external real scalar field leg has factor 1 in an amputated scattering amplitude. The Feynman i-epsilon prescription specifies the poles.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2020 1 b iii Solution 2026-10-25
Let label the incoming and outgoing fermion, and the incoming and outgoing antifermion. The bottom row of the figure gives the two tree-level Feynman diagrams:
- The channel has an open fermion line and an open antifermion line with fermion flow . The scalar propagator carries .
- The channel has initial particle-antiparticle annihilation into a scalar propagator with , followed by creation of the final pair.
Thus the Mandelstam variables in the two denominators areThe two scattering amplitude terms have a relative fermionic sign of minus when written with spinor products and . The overall phase depends on the chosen ordering of the external states. No channel joins an incoming fermion to an outgoing antifermion through a species-preserving Yukawa interaction.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2020 1 b ii Solution 2026-10-25
With all four external fermions of species 1, both final attachments are possible. The middle row of the figure gives the two tree-level Feynman diagrams:
- The channel has lines and , joined by a scalar propagator with .
- The channel has lines and , joined by a scalar propagator with .
For a fixed ordering of external fermion states, the fermionic sign from exchanging the final identical fermions givesHere are Dirac spinors. In particular, the scattering amplitude changes sign when the complete final labels and are exchanged, as required for identical fermions.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2020 1 b i Solution 2026-10-25
Label the initial species-1 and species-2 fermions by and , and the final species-1 and species-2 fermions by and . There is exactly one tree-level Feynman diagram: the -channel scalar propagator joins the continuous species-1 line to the continuous species-2 line . Its exchanged four-momentum determines , in the notation of Mandelstam variables:The top row of the figure displays this Feynman diagram. A crossed attachment would change species at an interaction vertex and is forbidden. There is no initial antifermion for an annihilation channel.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2020 1 d Solution 2026-10-25
For a connected amputated Feynman diagram, write for the number of independent loop momenta. Each loop momentum integration scales as , each internal scalar propagator as , and each internal Dirac propagator as when both four-momenta and mass are scaled. The Yukawa coupling has mass dimension zero. ThusCounting the two fermion ends and one scalar end at each interaction vertex, and using connectedness, givesConsequently , , andThe requested exponent requires amputation and removal of the overall momentum delta function. An ordinary unamputated connected Green function has an additional external scalar propagators, giving mass dimension after stripping that delta function, or if it is retained. For a concrete check, the free two-point scalar propagator scales as , not . The exponent is the engineering result for the amputated object. A fixed renormalization scale introduces logarithms; the displayed homogeneity is a naive power counting statement rather than an exact quantum scaling law at fixed subtraction scale.
More generally, with external scalar ends and external fermion ends, the same counting gives the superficial degree of divergenceThis is an upper bound on the overall ultraviolet divergence. Numerator cancellations and Lorentz invariance may lower it; an apparently convergent whole Feynman diagram can still have ultraviolet subdivergences. Local subtraction of those ultraviolet subdivergences is required first.
For pure scalar ends, can require counterterms. Lorentz invariance reduces the two-point terms to a mass counterterm and wave-function renormalization; derivatives of a single scalar field are total derivatives, and a one-derivative cubic scalar term cannot be a Lorentz scalar. With two external fermions, requires their kinetic term and mass counterterm, while requires Yukawa coupling renormalization. Four external fermions give , so no independent four-fermion counterterm is required.
A complete counterterm Lagrangian consistent with the species symmetry can therefore be writtenThe vacuum energy density term matters for an unnormalized vacuum functional and cancels from normalized Green functions. The tadpole counterterm can impose . There is no symmetry of the massive Yukawa interaction, so linear, cubic and quartic scalar terms cannot be excluded. For instance, in a constant background the divergent fermion loop contribution contains , exhibiting all these powers. This is counterterm closure of a massive Yukawa theory.
The two species have identical couplings, so their common unitary flavour rotations preserve the Lagrangian density and their counterterms can be chosen species independent. Equality of the scalar and fermion masses, however, is not protected: and are independent. Including the displayed finite set of operators yields a renormalizable quantum field theory. Restricting the bare Lagrangian density to the terms printed in the question is not closed under renormalization.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2021 1 a Solution 2026-10-25
The momentum space Feynman rules use the scalar propagator and two Dirac propagatorsThe cubic scalar field interaction vertex is . Each of the two flavour-changing Yukawa coupling interaction vertices, and , has factor in Dirac spinor indices. A fermion flow arrow continues through each interaction vertex, but its species changes. There is no or interaction vertex.
Every interaction vertex carries with inward four-momenta. Integrate each independent loop momentum with , divide by the Feynman-diagram symmetry factor, and include a minus sign and a gamma-matrix trace for each closed fermion loop. The is the Feynman i-epsilon prescription.
For an amputated scattering amplitude, incoming fermions supply and outgoing fermions supply ; incoming antifermions supply and outgoing antifermions supply . An external real scalar field particle supplies . Use the standard relativistic normalization of a one-particle state; the external factors belong to that normalization and the Lorentz-invariant phase-space measure, rather than an additional factor in the invariant scattering amplitude.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2021 1 e Solution 2026-10-25
Put . For the decay width is zero by conservation of energy. Just above the three-particle decay threshold, all three daughters are nonrelativistic. The decay amplitude of iv remains finite: the internal scalar propagator denominator approaches , and the Dirac scalar bilinear does not vanish at rest. Thus, for nonzero fixed and , the leading suppression comes entirely from three-body threshold phase space.
Use the spatial Dirac delta function to eliminate one daughter momentum. The remaining integral has six independent momentum coordinates and one conservation of energy constraint,Rescaling both momenta by gives from the measure and from the Dirac delta function. The smooth factors do not change the power. Consequentlywith a finite positive leading coefficient when ; for . The for the identical bosons changes only this coefficient. Equivalently, at fixed the opening is quadratic in . If , this leading tree-level Feynman diagram vanishes, so the stated leading coefficient is zero.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2021 3 b Solution 2026-10-25
Let be the number of independent loop momenta in a connected Feynman diagram. Every scalar propagator falls as , and every loop momentum integration contributes three powers, so . Counting line ends and using connectedness givesEliminating and yieldsThus increasing the sextic interaction vertex count does not worsen the superficial degree of divergence; adding a quartic interaction vertex improves it. Only finitely many external-line structures can have an overall ultraviolet divergence, even though arbitrarily high loop order is possible.
After subtracting ultraviolet subdivergences, locality and Lorentz invariance restrict the divergent counterterms to a constant vacuum energy density, a mass counterterm, a wave-function renormalization, and quartic and sextic field interaction terms. Odd powers are forbidden by the Z2 symmetry. In particular, permits a constant and , permits only a constant, and permits only a constant. This is perturbative renormalizability, not a guarantee that every superficially allowed divergence actually occurs or that every unrenormalized graph with lacks divergent subgraphs.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2021 3 d Solution 2026-10-25
There are three independent nonfactorized momentum integrals, namely a tadpole integral, the three-line sunset diagram integral, and the five-line banana integral. The six displayed Feynman diagrams involve six complete integral expressions:The distinction between independent building blocks and their products removes an ambiguity in counting “different momentum integrals”. For the strict divergent-wave-function renormalization interpretation of ii, the graphs in c reduce to , comprising three full integral expressions and two independent nonfactorized building blocks.
Make a Wick rotation and use to separate ultraviolet divergences from infrared divergences. Write , and let be the Euclidean versions of the integrals above, with their harmless overall factors of removed. A spherical ultraviolet cutoff givesThus the one-vertex quartic graph is linearly divergent, and the one-vertex sextic graph is quadratically divergent as .
For the other two building blocks, the spatial Fourier transform is especially transparent. The three-dimensional Euclidean scalar propagator isThe convolution theorem converts the parallel lines into . Angular integration gives, with a short-distance cutoff ,This is a different convenient cutoff regularization for the connected block; power-divergent coefficients depend on the cutoff convention, whereas the conclusions about powers and the presence of a kinetic logarithm do not. The sinc function is understood to be at .
For , the integrand starts as , soIts divergent part is independent of external momentum. In particular,The finite difference and its finite derivative show why the pure three-line sunset diagram does not need a divergent wave-function renormalization in three dimensions.
For , the small-distance Taylor expansion isConsequentlyIn particular, the nonzero term requires a genuine divergent wave-function renormalization, in addition to the mass counterterm. The coefficients here refer to the displayed position-space cutoff and have not included Feynman-diagram symmetry factors or bare couplings.
The comparison with the superficial degree of divergence isThus the actual leading power agrees with in every case. The additional logarithms in products come from ultraviolet subdivergences, which uniform power counting alone does not resolve.
For and , differentiation with respect to removes the logarithmic divergence of , but leaves divergent factors or multiplying a finite, nonpolynomial function of . These are subdivergent contributions, not new nonlocal counterterms: subtracting each tadpole diagram subdivergence and the momentum-independent subdivergence removes them. For example, in a factorized subtraction scheme , and likewise for . The remaining kinetic logarithm explains the strict interpretation in ii. A dimensional regularization scheme can suppress power divergences; it does not invalidate this cutoff-based comparison with .






