Feynman Rules for QED

The Feynman Rules for QED Setting up Amplitudes Casimirs Trick Trace Theorems

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Electrons and positrons

spinors u(s) and v (s) (s = spin) satisfy the Dirac equation ( p m)u = 0 adjoints u = u 0 and v = v 0 satisfy u( p m) = 0 orthogonality u(1) u(2) = 0 and v (1) v (2) = 0 normalization uu = 2m and vv = 2m completeness P (s) (s) P u u = p + m and s v (s) v (s) = p m s

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Photons
A (x) = aeipx (p) Lorentz condition p = 0 orthogonality (2) = 0 (1) normalization = 1 Coulomb gauge 0 = 0 and p = 0 Completeness P s ((s) )i ((s) )j = ij pi pj

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The Feynman Rules for QED I

The Feynman rules provide the recipe for constructing an amplitude M from a Feynman diagram. Step 1: For a particular process of interest, draw a Feynman diagram with the minimum number of vertices. There may be more than one. e , p 3 e+ , p 4

e , p 1 e+ , p 2

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The Feynman Rules for QED II

Step 2: For each Feynman diagram, label the four-momentum of each line, enforcing four-momentum conservation at every vertex. e , p 3 e+ , p 4

e , p 1 e+ , p 2 Note that arrows are only present on fermion lines and they represent particle ow, not momentum. Step 3: The amplitude depends on 1. Vertex factors 2. Propagators for internal lines 3. Wavefunctions for external lines
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Vertex Factors
e Every QED vertex,

contributes a factor of ige .

ge is a dimensionless coupling constant and is related to the ne-structure constant by 2 ge = 4

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Propagators
Each internal photon connects two vertices of the form ige and ige , so we should expect the propagator to contract the indices and . Photon propogator ig q2 Fermion propogator is a bit more complicated i(/ + m) q q 2 m2 The sign of q matters here we take it to be in the same direction as the fermion arrow.

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External Lines
Since both the vertex factor and the fermion propagators involve 4 4 matrices, but the amplitude must be a scalar, the external line factors must sit on the outside. Work backwards along every fermion line using:

e in u

e out u

e+ in v

e+ out v

in

out

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Matrix elements I
follow fermion lines backward to give e u(2)ig u(1)

e j = u u is associated with the electron current

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Matrix elements II
The matrix element is proportional to the two currents in the diagram below. ig [2 (ige )v4 ] v [3 (ige )u1 ] u (p1 p3 )2

e , p 3

e+ , p 4

e , p 1 e+ , p 2

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And Finally...
Step 4: The overall amplitude is the coherent sum of the individual amplitudes for each diagram: M |M2 | = = M1 + M2 + . . . |M1 + M2 + . . .|2

Step 4a: Antisymmetrization Include a minus sign between diagrams that differ only in the exchange of two identical fermions.

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Examples
There are only a handful of ways to make tree-level diagrams in QED. Construct amplitudes for Bhabha scattering(e+ e e+ e ) Compton scattering(e e ). Later, we will undertake thorough calculations for Mott scattering (e e ) pair annihilation (e+ e ) fermion pair-production (e+ e f f ).

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Example: Bhabha Scattering

e , p 3 e+ , p 4 e , p 3 e+ , p 4

e , p 1 e+ , p 2 e , p 1 e+ , p 2

Antisymmetrization M = Mt Ms ig Mt = i [3 (ige )u1 ] u [2 (ige )v4 ] v (p1 p3 )2 ig Ms = i [3 (ige )v4 ] u [2 (ige )u1 ] v (p1 + p2 )2

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Example: Compton Scattering

, p3 e , p 4 , p3 e , p 4

e , p 1

, p2

e , p 1

, p2

No antisymmetrization M = M1 + M2 i(/1 /3 + m) p p M1 = i u4 (ige ) (ige )u1 2 3 (p1 p3 )2 m2 i(/1 + /2 + m) p p M2 = i u4 (ige ) (ige )u1 2 3 (p1 + p2 )2 m2

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Polarized Particles
A typical QED amplitude might look something like M [1 v2 ] 3 u The Feynman rules wont take us any further, but to get a number for M we will need to substitute explicit forms for the wavefunctions of the external particles: u1 , v2 , and 3 . If all external particles have a known polarization, this might be a reasonable way to calculate things. More often we are interested in unpolarized particles as few accelerators produce polarized particles In the 1990s the SLC at SLAC produced polarized electron at 50 GeV

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Spin-Averaged Amplitudes
If we do not care about the polarizations of the particles then we need to 1. Average over the polarizations of the initial-state particles 2. Sum over the polarizations of the nal-state particles in the squared amplitude |M|2 . We call this the spin-averaged amplitude and we denote it by |M| D
2

Note that the averaging over initial state polarizations involves summing over all polarizations and then dividing by the number of independent E D polarizations, so |M|2 involves a sum over the polarizations of all external particles.

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Spin Sums I
Lets simplify things even further and suppose that we have M [1 u2 ] u Then |M|2 [1 u2 ] [1 u2 ] u u i h 0 [1 u2 ] u1 u2 u h i 0 [1 u2 ] u2 u1 u h i 0 0 0 [1 u2 ] u2 u1 u 1 [1 u2 ] u2 u u

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Spin Sums II
Rewriting the squared matrix element |M|2 [1 u2 ] u2 u1 u

We can use the completeness relation for u2 u2 X s s ui i ui i = (/i + mi ) p

si =1,2

Summing over the spins of particle 2 gives X |M|2 u1 (/2 + m2 )u1 p

s2

[1 Qu1 ] u

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Spin Sums III

The right-hand side is just a number, but if we represent the matrix multiplication with summations over indices, we can rewrite it as [1 Qu1 ] u = = = = (1 )i Qij (u1 )j u Qij (u1 u1 )ji [Q (u1 u1 )]ii Tr [Q(u1 u1 )]

Apply the completeness relation once again, so that we get X |M|2 Tr [Q(/1 + m1 )] p
s1

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Spin Sums IV
Starting from M [1 u2 ] u

Averaging over initial spins and summing over nal spins gives D E 1 2 p1 + m1 ) Tr (/2 + m2 )(/ p |M| 2 Particles 1 and 2 may or may not be in the initial state The factor of 1 is from the averaging over initial spins, assuming exactly one 2 of u1 and u2 corresponds to an initial-state particle. If they are both in the initial state (e.g., pair annihilation), the factor is If neither is in the initial state (e.g., pair production), the factor is 1.
1 . 4

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Casimirs Trick
This procedure of calculating spin-averaged amplitudes in terms of traces is known as Casimirs Trick X p [a 1 ub ] [a 2 ub ] = Tr 1 (/b + mb )2 (/a + ma ) u u p
all spins

If antiparticle spinors (v) are present in the spin sum, we use the corresponding completeness relation X s s vi i vi i = (/i mi ) p
si =1,2

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Traces
Because of Casimirs Trick, were going to nd ourselves calculating a lot of traces involving -matrices. General identities about traces: Tr(A + B) Tr(A) Tr(AB) Tr(ABC) = = = = Tr(A) + Tr(B) Tr(A) Tr(BA) Tr(CAB) = Tr(BCA)

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Gamma matricies and traces

The two major identities that we will need in order to build more complicated trace identities are g g { , } = = 4 2g

Since = 4 and = 4g . We nd that = = = = (2g ) 2 2 4 2

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Simple Trace Identities

The simplest trace identity is: Tr(1) = 4 The trace of a single matrix is zero The trace of any odd number of -matrices. For 2 -matrices, Tr( ) = = = = Tr ( + ) /2 Tr(2g )/2 g Tr(1) 4g

For 4 traces Tr( ) = 4 g

+g

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Traces With 5
The vertex factor for weak interactions involves 5 . By inspection, Tr( 5 ) = 0. Since 5 = i 0 1 2 3 (an even number of -matrices), Tr( 5 ) Tr( 5 ) = = 0 0

Also, Tr( 5 ) = 0

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The 5 Trace
Only with 4 (or more) other -matrices can we obtain a nonzero trace involving 5 : Tr( 5 ) = 4i where we recall that the antisymmetric tensor is dened as 8 > 1 for even permutations of 0123 > < +1 for odd permutations of 0123 > > : 0 if any 2 indices are the same

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Contractions of the Tensor

Since is completely antisymmetric, we will get zero when we contract this with any tensor that is symmetric in 2 indices, such as g or (p p + p p ). 2 1 1 2 Only contractions with another antisymmetric tensor survive: = = = . . . 24
6 2

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Example 1
One of the traces involved in Bhabha scattering is T = Tr [ (/1 + m) (/3 + m)] p p

We can expand this out to create 4 terms, but 2 of these terms (the ones linear in m) will involve 3 -matrices, and are therefore zero. Thus, T = = Tr( /1 /3 ) + m2 Tr( ) p p ` 4 p p + p p (p1 p3 )g + 4m2 g 3 1 1 3

This result will be contracted with another trace that is covariant (i.e., as opposed to contravariant ) in and .

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Example 2
Consider A = Tr( /1 /2 ) Tr( /1 /2 ) p p p p

Evaluating the traces, A = 4 p p + p p (p1 p2 )g 1 2 1 2 = =

4 [p1 p2 + p1 p2 (p1 p2 )g ] 2 2 2 2 2 16 2p1 p2 + 2(p1 p2 ) + 4(p1 p2 ) 4(p1 p2 ) 32 m2 m2 + (p1 p2 )2 1 2

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