For interactions , the two Yukawa fermion triangle orientations generate a local divergent three-scalar vertex proportional to . In , with convention, its loop pole is . A counterterm cancels it. The finite renormalized coefficient is additional data, fixed by a renormalization condition. Declaring this cubic absent from the displayed bare interaction is not by itself a prescription for its loop-generated finite value.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 48 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let the masses of and be and , respectively. Write their external four-momenta as , with and . The condition opens the two-body decay phase space. Use mostly-minus Minkowski spacetime, the Dirac propagator , and the convention that an amputated connected diagram contributes .
There is no tree-level three-scalar Feynman vertex in the displayed interaction. The leading decay amplitude has one Yukawa interaction and two Yukawa interactions, so is of order . The Yukawa fermion triangle is:
The two inequivalent cyclic orderings around the fermion loop are related by reversal and interchange of . They give equal integrals: reversing all internal four-momenta leaves the masses and denominators unchanged, and the scalar gamma matrix trace identities below give the same numerator. Both must be included. The closed fermion loop sign supplies , and each ordering has the productThere is no extra in the decay amplitude. Such a factor belongs to integration over the identical-particle final phase space when calculating a decay rate.
Route , , and define , and similarly for . A regulated leading decay amplitude isHere dimensional regularization preserves translation of the loop momentum, and is its reference mass scale. Factors account for the loop's dimension; dimensionally continued couplings can equivalently carry these powers. No occurs in this scalar loop, so there is no regularization ambiguity.
Using gamma matrix trace identities, traces with an odd number of gamma matrices vanish, while and . Thus the numerator simplifies completely toFor a reduction to standard scalar integrals, disregard the vanishing infinitesimals only in the numerator. Since up to those infinitesimals,Define the scalar bubble and scalar triangle Feynman integral byCancelling each denominator in turn gives two bubbles with external invariant and one with invariant . ThereforeThis explicitly displays the complete gamma matrix trace simplification, the two loop orientations and the overall phase convention.
There is a renormalization qualification to this answer. For the loop is logarithmically divergent; retaining just the unregulated four-dimensional integral would not specify a finite physical decay amplitude. To see the divergence, a Feynman parameter and a shifted loop momentum giveThe scalar triangle Feynman integral is ultraviolet finite. HenceA cubic counterterm from a Yukawa fermion triangle, , contributes to and cancels the pole with . This is an instance of counterterm closure of a massive Yukawa theory. After subtraction the physical answer is , where a renormalization condition fixes the finite cubic coupling . The displayed interaction alone does not supply that condition. For example, setting at a specified subtraction scale defines one prescription for the loop-induced decay. The regulated expressions above remain the lowest-order loop answer without such extra data. For the trace, and therefore this scalar triangle contribution, vanishes identically.
Now take the Hermitian pseudoscalar Yukawa interaction with the sign printed in the PDF. Varying with respect to the Dirac adjoint gives the Dirac equationVarying with respect to and integrating by parts gives the adjoint Dirac equationThe factor in the coupling matters: is anti-Hermitian, so this factor makes the interaction Hermitian for real .
For the axial-current divergence for scalar and pseudoscalar backgrounds, set and . The two equations are equivalentlyIn the divergence of the axial current, use and :ThusThis is the classical field-equation identity requested here. It includes explicit breaking by both backgrounds; it is not a claim that a renormalized quantum axial current has no chiral anomaly when gauge interactions are present.
