5.

Wicks theorem and Feynman diagrams 123

D(xi xj ) = Dij ),
T {1 2 3 4 } = : 1 2 3 4 : +D12 : 3 4 : +D13 : 2 4 :
+D14 : 2 3 : +D23 : 1 4 : +D24 : 1 3 :

(5.85)

+D34 : 1 2 : +D12 D34 + D13 D24 + D14 D23 .

The proof of the theorem can be given by induction on the number
of elds, see, e.g. Peskin and Schroeder (1995), pages 8890. When
we take the vacuum expectation value, all terms with a normal ordering
factor give zero, and only the terms where all elds have been contracted
survive. Thus in our example
0|T {1 2 3 4 }|0 = D12 D34 + D13 D24 + D14 D23 .

(5.86)

The above equation has a vivid physical interpretation. If we interpret

D(x1 x2 ) as the amplitude for the propagation of a particle from the
space-time point x1 to x2 , then D(x1 x2 )D(x3 x4 ) is the amplitude
for the process in which one particle goes from x1 to x2 and another from
x3 to x4 , without interacting with each other. We can now associate a
Feynman graph in position space to each non-vanishing contribution.
We simply draw a line connecting points xi and xj for each propagator
D(xi xj ). For instance, the term D(x1 x2 )D(x3 x4 ) can be associated to the (rather trivial) Feynman diagram in position space given
in Fig. 5.2.
When we expand the exponential in eq. (5.67) in powers of HI , each
term HI contains elds at the same space-time point. As we will see
explicitly below, this gives rise to less trivial Feynman graphs.
The best way to understand all this machinery is to put it to work,
and to start computing. Therefore, in the next two subsections, we
will perform a few computations in all details. The important point
that will emerge, however, is that it is not necessary every time to go
through the rather involved steps that we will present, since the results
can be summarized very compactly by a set of rules, the Feynman rules,
that allow us to associate to each amplitude a set of Feynman diagrams,
and to write down almost immediately the contribution of each Feynman
diagram. Still, once in a lifetime, it might be useful to go through all the
detailed steps, before starting to use the Feynman rules as an automatic
machinery. The reader who does not wish to follow the computations
in all details can go quickly through the next two subsections and nd
a summary of Feynman rules in Section 5.5.3.

5.5.1

A few very explicit computations

We begin with the scattering amplitude for a process with two initial particles
with momenta k1 , k2 into two nal particles with momenta p1 , p2 , in the
theory with HI = (/4!)4 . The general formulas (5.46, 5.67) give
! 2
!

2
Y
Y i Z
i Z
p1 p2 |iT |k1 k2 
p2 m2
k 2 m2
i=1 i
j=1 j

x1

x2

x3

x4

Fig. 5.2 The diagrammatic repre-

sentation of D(x1 x2 )D(x3 x4 ).

124 Perturbation theory and Feynman diagrams

Z

d4 x1 d4 x2 d4 x3 d4 x4 ei(p1 x1 +p2 x2 k1 x3 k2 x4 )
R 4 4
0|T {(x1 )(x2 )(x3 )(x4 ) exp i 4!
d x }|0

0|T {exp i 4!
d4 x4 }|0

(5.87)

We work at the lowest non-trivial order in perturbation theory in . As we

will see later, in 4 theory Z = 1 + O(2 ) and therefore, since we will work
up to O(), we set Z = 1.
Zero-order term: First of all there is a term of order 0 , which is given
simply setting = 0 in eq. (5.87). Of course, if there is no coupling, there
is no scattering, and we must nd a trivial amplitude at this order. Let us
nevertheless check explicitly how this comes out. At = 0, using eq. (5.86),
Z Y
4

d4 xi ei(p1 x1 +p2 x2 k1 x3 k2 x4 ) 0|T {(x1 )(x2 )(x3 )(x4 )}|0

i=1

Z Y
4

d4 xi ei(p1 x1 +p2 x2 k1 x3 k2 x4 ) (D(x1 x2 )D(x3 x4 ) + . . .) ,

i=1

(5.88)
where the dots represent the other two terms in eq. (5.86). In terms of Feynman graphs in position space, the contribution written explicitly is shown in
Fig. 5.2 and represents a particle traveling from x1 to x2 and a second particle
traveling from x3 to x4 , without interacting with the rst (and similarly for
the other two terms denoted by the dots in eq. (5.88)). Changing integration
variables to x = x1 x2 and X = (x1 + x2 )/2 and similarly for x3 , x4 we have
Z
d4 x1 d4 x2 d4 x3 d4 x4 ei(p1 x1 +p2 x2 k1 x3 k2 x4 ) D(x1 x2 )D(x3 x4 )
Z

d4 xd4 Xei(p1 +p2 )X+i(p1 p2 )x/2 D(x)

=
Z

d4 xd4 Xei(k1 +k2 )Xi(k1 k2 )x/2 D(x)

= (2)4 (4) (p1 + p2 )(2)4 (4) (k1 + k2 )

Observe that the factor i

in p2 m2 +
i
should be kept when p is an integration variable, because in this case it
gives the prescription for going around
the poles, but if p is the momentum on
an external leg, and is therefore xed,
we can set directly
= 0.
7

There is a subtlety here connected

with graphs known as tadpoles, that
we will introduce below. In principle
inserting tadpole graphs in the lines of
a disconnected diagram we can obtain
the appropriate number of pole factors.
However, the tadpoles are simply reabsorbed in the mass renormalization, as
we will see in Section 5.6.

i
i
.
p21 m2 k12 m2

(5.89)

Comparing with eq. (5.87) we see that on the right-hand side we have obtained only two pole factors,6 which originated from the two propagators in
momentum space, while on the left-hand side of eq. (5.87) there are four pole
factors. Therefore only two of them cancel, and we get a contribution to the
T -matrix element
p1 p2 |iT |k1 k2  = (2)8 (p22 m2 )(k22 m2 ) (4) (p1 + p2 ) (4) (k1 + k2 ) (5.90)
and when we go on mass shell this gives zero. The same happens for the other
contributions indicated by the dots in eq. (5.88). Therefore at zero order in
there is no contribution to the scattering amplitude, as expected.
This is a general situation which repeats for the n m scattering amplitudes, and disconnected graphs do not contribute, simply because the Feynman graphs do not provide enough pole factors to cancel those that appear in
the LSZ formula.7
Term O(): The rst non-trivial contribution comes expanding the exponential in eq. (5.87) to rst order in . Let us for the moment neglect the