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AN INTRODUCTION TO QED & QCD

Dr Elena Accomando (University of Southampton)


Contents

Outline of Lectures ................................................................................................ 57


Textbooks ................................................................................................................ 58
1 Relativistic Quantum Mechanics .......................................................... 59
1.1 The Klein-Gordon Equation .................................................................... 59
1.2 The Dirac Equation ................................................................................... 60
2 Spin ............................................................................................................. 63
2.1 Plane Wave Solutions of the Dirac Equation ....................................... 64
2.2 Spin ............................................................................................................ 65
2.3 Working with Dirac Spinors ................................................................... 66
2.4 Lorentz transformations on spinors ....................................................... 67
3 Quantum Electro-Dynamics .................................................................. 68
3.1 The QED Lagrangian ................................................................................ 69
3.2 Feynman Rules .......................................................................................... 70
4 Calculation of Cross Sections ................................................................ 75
4.1 Phase Space Integrals .............................................................................. 75
4.2 Return to Coulomb Scattering ................................................................ 76
4.3 The Coulomb Potential ........................................................................... 77
+ –
4.4 e e Annihilation ...................................................................................... 78
5 Photon Scattering ..................................................................................... 79
5.1 Photon Polarisation ................................................................................. 79
5.2 Compton Scattering .................................................................................. 81
6 Strong interactions ................................................................................... 83
6.1 QCD Lagrangian ....................................................................................... 83
6.2 Gauge Invariance ..................................................................................... 86
7 Renormalization ....................................................................................... 91
7.1 Dimensional regularisation and renormalisation scale ...................... 91
7.2 Running Coupling ................................................................................... 93
Summary .................................................................................................................. 97
Acknowledgments ................................................................................................ 97
QED and QCD
HEP Summer School 2016

This course gives an introduction to the ingredients of gauge theories which are necessary
to calculate cross sections for particular processes. The section headings are given below:

Outline of Lectures:

1. Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

2. Spin

3. Relativistic Electromagnetism

4. Coulomb Scattering, eµ → eµ

5. Compton Scattering, eγ → eγ

6. Colour

7. Renormalisation

This course runs in parallel with the Quantum Field Theory course, from which we will
use some results. Some topics mentioned in this course will be covered in more detail in
the Standard Model and Phenomenology courses next week.
Textbooks:

These notes are intended to be self-contained, but only provide a short introduction to a
complex and fascinating topic. You may find the following textbooks useful:

1. Aitchison and Hey, Gauge Theories in Particle Physics, CRC Press.

2. Halzen and Martin, Quarks and Leptons, Wiley.

3. Peskin and Schröder, An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, ABP.

4. Ryder, Quantum Field Theory, CUP.

5. Srednicki, Quantum Field Theory, CUP.

6. Schwartz, Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model, CUP.

The first two are more practical and closer to the spirit of this course while the other contain
many more mathematical details. The last one is very recent. If you are particularly
interested in (or confused by) a particular topic, I encourage you to take a look at it. If
there are other textbooks which you find particularly helpful, please tell me and I will
update the list.

These notes are based heavily on the content of previous versions of this course, in partic-
ular the 2013 version by Jennifer Smillie. Throughout, we will use “natural units” where
~ = c = 1 and the metric signature (+ − −−).
Please email any comments, questions or corrections to a.banfi@sussex.ac.uk.

Andrea Banfi
May 25, 2016
1 Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
In order to describe the dynamics of particles involved in high-energy collisions we must
be able to combine the theory of phenomena occurring at the smallest scales, i.e. quantum
mechanics, with the description of particles moving close to the speed of light, i.e. special
relativity. To do this we must develop wave equations which are relativistically invariant
(i.e. invariant under Lorentz transformations). In this section we will derive relativistic
equations of motion for scalar particles (spin-0) and particles with spin-1/2.

1.1 The Klein-Gordon Equation


We start with the Hamiltonian for a particle in classical mechanics:

p2
E= + V (x) . (1)
2m
To convert this into a wave equation, we make the replacements E → i∂t and p → −i∇,
so that a plane-wave solution

φ(t, x) ∝ e−i(Et−p·x) = e−ip·x (2)

has the energy-momentum relation given in eq. (1). Applied to a general wavefunction φ,
a linear superposition of plane waves, this gives
 
1 2
i∂t φ(t, x) = − ∇ + V (x) φ(t, x) = H φ(t, x) , (3)
2m

where H is the so-called Hamiltonian. We recognise this as the Schrödinger Equation, the
cornerstone of Quantum Mechanics. From this form, we can deduce that eq. (3) cannot
be relativistically invariant because time appears only through a first-order derivative on
the left-hand side while space appears as a second-order derivative on the right-hand side.
Yet we know that if we make a Lorentz transformation in the x direction for example, this
would mix the x and t components and therefore they cannot have different rôles.
The problem with the Schrödinger Equation arose because we started from a non-relativistic
energy-momentum relation. Let us then start from the relativistic equation for energy.
For a particle with 4-momentum pµ = (E, p) and mass m,

E 2 = m 2 + p2 . (4)

Again we convert this to an operator equation by setting pµ = i∂µ so that the corresponding
wave equation for an arbitrary scalar wavefunction φ(x, t) gives

∂t2 − ∇2 + m2 φ(t, x) = ∂µ ∂ µ + m2 φ(x) = ( + m2 )φ(x) = 0 ,


 
(5)
where we have introduced the four-vector xµ = (t, x). This is the “Klein-Gordon equation”
which is the equation of motion for a free scalar field. We can explicitly check that this is
indeed Lorentz invariant. Under a Lorentz transformation
0
xµ → x µ = Λµν xν ⇒ ∂µ → ∂µ0 = (Λ−1 )ρµ ∂ρ , (6)
The field φ is a scalar, i.e. it has the transformation property
φ(x) → φ0 (x0 ) = φ0 (Λx) = φ(x) . (7)
Therefore, in the primed system,
∂µ0 ∂ 0µ + m2 φ0 (x0 ) = (Λ−1 )ρµ ∂ρ (Λ−1 )σν ∂σ g µν + m2 φ0 (Λx)
  
(8)
= ∂ρ ∂σ g ρσ + m2 φ(x) = 0 ,
 

and the equation still holds.

1.2 The Dirac Equation


The Klein-Gordon equation admits negative-energy solutions,pbecause the energy E ap-
pearing in the plane-wave in eq. (2) can have the two values ± p2 + m2 . Dirac sought to
find an alternative relativistic equation which was linear in ∂t like the Schrödinger equation
(this was an attempt to solve the problem of negative-energy solutions to eq. (5) – in fact
he didn’t solve this problem, but a different one). If the equation is linear in ∂t , it must
also be linear in ∇ if it is to be invariant under Lorentz transformations. We therefore
start with the general form
i∂t ψ(t, x) = (−iα · ∇ + β m) ψ(t, x) . (9)
Dirac also required that the solutions of his equation would be a solution of the Klein-
Gordon equation as well, or equivalently, the energy relation eq. (4) was the correct energy-
momentum relation for plane wave solutions e−ip·x of the Dirac equation. To see what
constraints this imposes, we must square eq. (9):
−∂t2 ψ(t, x) = i∂t (−iα · ∇ + β m) ψ(t, x)
= (−iα · ∇ + β m)2 ψ(t, x) (10)
= −αi αj ∇i ∇j − i(βαi + αi β) m∇i + β 2 m2 ψ(t, x) .
 

However, the Klein-Gordon equation requires that the right-hand side is equal to [−∇2 +
m2 ]ψ(t, x) and therefore α and β must satisfy
αi αj + αj αi = {αi , αj } = 2δ ij , βαi + αi β = {αi , β} = 0, β2 = 1 . (11)
If αi and β are just numbers, these equations cannot be solved. Dirac solved them by
instead taking αi and β to be n × n matrices, and ψ(t, x) to be a column vector. Even
now, the solution is not immediate. One can show that the conditions in eq. (11) require
Tr αi = 0 = Tr β, (12)
and further that the eigenvalues of the above matrices are ±1. This in turn means that n
must be even (do you understand why?). In 2-dimensions, there are still not enough lin-
early independent matrices to satisfy eq. (11). There do exist solutions in four dimensions.
One such solution is
   
0 σ 12 0
α= , β= , (13)
σ 0 0 −12
where σ are the usual Pauli matrices and 12 represents the 2 × 2 identity matrix. Now we
have formed an equation which may be thought of as a square-root of the Klein-Gordon
equation, but which is not obviously Lorentz invariant. To show that, we first define the
new matrices
γ 0 = β, γ = βα . (14)
Then we form γ µ = (γ 0 , γ) where the µ is a Lorentz index. Each component is a 4 × 4
matrix. In terms of the γ-matrices, one can write the conditions in eq. (11) in a Lorentz
covariant form
{γ µ , γ ν } = γ µ γ ν + γ ν γ µ = 2g µν . (15)
This is an example of a Clifford algebra. Any matrices satisfying this condition in eq. (15)
may be used to construct the Dirac equation. The representation in eqs. (13) and (14) is
just one example, known as the Dirac representation. Note, for example, that any other
matrices satisfying
αi0 = U αi U −1 , and β 0 = U βU −1 , (16)
where U is a unitary matrix, will also be suitable.
Multiplying through by γ 0 , we may rewrite the eq. (9) in a covariant form as
(iγ µ ∂µ − m14 )ψ(t, x) = (i∂/ − m)ψ(x) = 0 , (17)
where a, a vector with a slash, is a short-hand notation for γ µ aµ . The equation above
is known as the Dirac equation. In momentum space, i.e. after a Fourier transformation,
∂µ → −ipµ , and the Dirac equation becomes
(γ µ pµ − m14 )ψ̃(p) = (p − m)ψ̃(p) = 0 , (18)

where ψ̃(p) is the Fourier transform of a solution of the Dirac equation ψ(x).
We mentioned in passing that ψ(t, x) is a column vector rather than a scalar. This
means that it contains more than one degree of freedom. Dirac exploited this property to
interpret his equation as the wave equation for spin-1/2 particles, fermions, which can be
either spin-up or spin-down. The column vector ψ is known as a Dirac spinor.
Comparing eq. (9) to the Schrödinger equation in eq. (3) gives the Hamiltonian for a free
spin-1/2 particle:
HDirac = −iα · ∇ + β m . (19)
E ..
.

+m

−m

..
.
Figure 1: The energy levels in the Dirac sea picture. They must satisfy |E| > m, but
negative-energy states are allowed. The vacuum is the state in which all negative-energy
levels are filled.

The trace of the Hamiltonian gives the sum of the energy eigenvalues. The condition
that the matrices α and β are traceless therefore means that the eigenvalues of HDirac
must sum to zero. Therefore, like the Klein-Gordon equation, also the Dirac equation has
negative-energy solutions.
Dirac himself proposed a solution for this problem which became known as the “Dirac
sea”. He accepted the existence of negative-energy states, but took the vacuum as the
state in which all these states are filled, see fig. 1. There is a conceptual problem with
this in that the vacuum has infinite negative charge and energy. However, any observation
relies only on energy differences, so this picture can give an acceptable theory.
As the negative-energy states are already full, the Pauli exclusion principle forbids any
positive-energy electron to fall into one of the negative-energy states. If instead energy
is supplied, an electron is excited from a negative-energy state to a positive-energy state
and an “electron-hole” pair is created. The absence of the negative-energy electron, the
hole, is interpreted as the presence of of state with positive energy and positive charge,
i.e. a positron. Dirac predicted the existence of the positron in 1927 and this particle was
discovered five years later.
However, Dirac’s argument only holds for spin-1/2 particles which obey the Pauli exclusion
principle. A consistent solution for all particles is provided by Quantum Field Theory
in a picture developed by Feynman and Stückelberg, in which positive-energy partices
travel only forward in time, whereas negative-energy particles travel only backwards in
time. In this way, a negative-energy particle with momentum pµ , travelling backward in
time, is re-interpreted as a positive energy anti-particle with momentum −pµ travelling
forward in time. Let us see how this picture naturally arises by considering two processes,
the scattering e− µ− → e− µ− , and Compton scattering e− γ → e− γ. In non-relativistic
quantum mechanics, the scattering e− µ− → e− µ− corresponds to the scattering of an
electron from an external Coulomb potential. This is represented on the left-hand side of
fig. 2. The horizontal axis represents the time at which a give elementary process occurs.
x x x

e− e− e− e−
e− e−

µ− µ− µ− µ− µ−

t t1 t2 t t1 t2 t
t1= t 2

Figure 2: A pictorial representation of the scattering e− µ− → e− µ− in non-relativistic


quantum mechanics (left) and in Quantum Field Theory (right).

In non-relativistic quantum mechanics, scattering happens instantaneously, so that the


time t1 at which a photon is emitted by the incoming electron coincides with the time t2
in which it is absorbed by a muon, which stays at rest as a source of a static potential. In
quantum field theory the scattering cannot occur instantaneously, because we need to take
into account the fact that the photon mediating the scattering travels at the speed of light.
The corresponding scattering amplitude is given by the sum of the contributions of the
two diagrams on the right-hand side of fig. 2. It is clear that, in the limit in which c can be
taken to be infinite, the two diagrams coincide and give the non-relativistic contribution.
From the point of view of the electron, the first diagram can be interpreted as the emission
of a positive-energy photon at t = t1 that travels forward in time, and is later absorbed by
a muon at t = t2 . The second diagram has an awkward interpretation from the point of
view of the electron, because it corresponds to the emission of a negative-energy photon
at t = t2 that travels backwards in time. However, the graph makes perfectly sense if one
considers that it is the muon that emits a photon a time t1 , which is later reabsorbed by the
electron at a time t2 . A similar interpretation can be applied to the Compton scattering
diagrams in Fig. 3, and clarifies the Feynman and Stückelberg interpretation of negative-
energy states. In the left diagram, an electron emits a photon at time t1 and later, at
time t2 absorbs another one. In the right-hand diagram it appears as if an electron emits
a photon and then travels backwards in time to absorb another photon. Feynman and
Stückelberg reasoned instead that the incoming photon split into an electron-positron pair
and then at a later time, the positron annihilates the other electron, emitting a photon.

2 Spin
In the previous section, we introduced a Dirac spinor as a solution to the Dirac equation
in the form of a column vector. In this section, we will discuss the explicit form of
the solutions to the Dirac equation, and verify that they indeed correspond to the wave
functions for particles with spin-1/2.
x x

e− γ e− γ

γ
γ e−

t1 t2 t t1 t2 t

Figure 3: Diagrams illustrating the Feynman-Stückelberg interpretation of negative-energy


particles, which correspond to those travelling backwards in time, as in the right-hand
diagram. They interpreted a negative-energy particle travelling backwards as a positive-
energy anti-particle travelling forwards in time, see text.

2.1 Plane-Wave Solutions of the Dirac Equation


We begin by seeking plane-wave solutions to the Dirac Equation. Given the 2 × 2 block
nature of the γ-matrices, we will start with the form
 
χ(p)
ψ(x) = e−ip·x , (20)
φ(p)
where χ and φ are two-component spinors. Substituting this into eq. (18) and using
eqs. (13) and (14), we find
    
0 χ m σ ·p χ
p = , (21)
φ σ ·p −m φ
or equivalently
(σ ·p) φ = (p0 − m)χ
(22)
(σ ·p) χ = (p0 + m)φ.
2 2
From the
p identity (σ ·p) = p , these equations are only consistent for particles with
p0 = ± p2 + m2 (consistent with having solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation).
For a massive fermion at rest (p = 0), we have
p0 χ = mχ and p0 φ = −mφ. (23)
p=0
Positive-energy solutions ψ+ must therefore have φ = 0 and negative energy solutions
p=0
ψ− have χ = 0, as follows:
   
p=0 χ −imt p=0 0
ψ+ = e , and ψ− = eimt . (24)
0 φ
For particles which are not at rest (p 6= 0), the solution is then dictated by eq. (22), with
the requirement that it reduces to eq. (24) for p = 0. For positive-energy solutions, we
therefore write
 
χr p
ψ+ (x) = N σ·p e−ip·x ≡ ur (p) e−ip·x , p0 = E ≡ p2 + m2 , (25)
E+m r
χ

where r = 1, 2 and N is√a normalisation conventionally chosen such that u†r (p)us (p) =
2E δ rs , which gives N = E + m. The spinors χ1 and χ2 cover the two (spin) degrees of
freedom:
   
1 0
χ1 = , and χ2 = . (26)
0 1

Similarly, negative-energy solutions are conventionally written as


 σ·p 
φr
ψ− (x) = N E+m eip·x ≡ vr (p) eip·x , p0 = E , (27)
φr
with the spinors φ1 and φ2 again covering the two (spin) degrees of freedom:
   
1 0
φ1 = , and φ2 = . (28)
0 1

The spinors u(p) and v(p) therefore


p represent particle and anti-particle solutions with
momentum p and energy E = p + m2 .
2

2.2 Spin
Each Dirac spinor has two linearly independent solutions which we stated earlier corre-
sponded to the two possible spin states of a fermion. In this subsection we will define the
corresponding spin operator. If we again consider a particle at rest we have
   
1 0
 0   1 
u1 = 
 0 ,
 and u2 = 
 0 .
 (29)
0 0

These have eigen-values ± 12 under the matrix


 
1 σz 0
. (30)
2 0 0
One can repeat the same thing for anti-particles and generalise to all the Pauli matrices
to deduce the “spin operator”
 
1 σ 0
S= . (31)
2 0 σ
You can check explicitly that S 2 = 43 14 , as we would expect. Therefore, for particles at
rest, p = 0, the top two components of ψ+ describe fermions with Sz = +1/2 (spin up)
and Sz = −1/2 (spin down) respectively.
In case of a general p one can consider the projection of the spin-operator along the
direction of motion of a particle, i.e. p/|p|. This gives the helicity operator, h(p)
σ.p
!
|p|
0
h(p) = . (32)
0 σ.p
|p|

This operator satisfies h(p)2 = 1, and hence its eigenvalues are ±1.

2.3 Working with Dirac Spinors


So far we have discussed Dirac spinors, ψ, describing spin-1/2 particles and how Dirac
used his equation to predict anti-particles. To generate an equation for anti-particles, we
first take the Hermitian conjugate of the Dirac equation and find
←− ←−
ψ † (−iγ 0 ∂0 + iγ i ∂i − m) = 0 , (33)
where the arrows over the derivatives just mean they act on the left, and we have used
the fact that γ 0† = γ 0 and γ i† = −γ i . All matrices have to be written on the right
because they are multiplying matrices and ψ † is a row-vector. The above equation does
not seem Lorentz covariant. This can be rectified by multiplying the equation by γ 0 on
the right-hand side and using [γ 0 , γ i ] = 0. Then we have
←− ←

(ψ † γ 0 )(−i 
∂ − m) = 0, or ψ(i 
∂ + m) = 0 . (34)
The interpretation of the above equation is that the field ψ ≡ ψ † γ 0 represents an anti-
particle.
By construction, the spinors u(p) and v(p) satisfy their respective Dirac equations in
momentum space:
(p − m)u(p) = 0 , (p + m)v(p) = 0 . (35)
They also satisfy a number of relations which will prove very useful in calculations of
scattering amplitudes. Firstly, they are orthonormal:
ur (p)us (p) = 2m δ rs = −v r (p)vs (p),
(36)
ur (p)vs (p) = 0 = −v r (p)us (p).
If instead one takes the outer product of spinor and anti-spinor, they also satisfy the
following completeness relations:
2
X 2
X
ur (p)ur (p) = (p + m) and vr (p)v r (p) = (p − m). (37)
r=1 r=1

These relations can be checked explicitly (see problem sheet).


2.4 Lorentz transformations on spinors
Let us consider the Lorentz transformation of eq. (6). The field ψ has the transformation
property

ψ(x) → ψ 0 (x0 ) = ψ 0 (Λx) = S(Λ)ψ(x) ⇒ ψ̄(x) → ψ̄ 0 (x0 ) = ψ̄(x)γ 0 S † (Λ)γ 0 , (38)

with S(Λ) a suitable 4 × 4 matrix. Its explicit form is derived by imposing that the Dirac
equation is Lorentz invariant:

i∂µ0 γ µ − m ψ 0 (x0 ) = i(Λ−1 )νµ ∂ν γ µ − m S(Λ)ψ(x) .


 
(39)

Imposing that S(Λ) satisfies


γ µ S(Λ) = S(Λ)Λµρ γ ρ , (40)
we obtain
i∂µ0 γ µ − m ψ 0 (x0 ) = S(Λ) i(Λ−1 )νµ Λµρ ∂ν γ ρ − m ψ(x)
  
(41)
= S(Λ)(i∂ν γ ν − m)ψ(x) = 0 ,

so that ψ 0 (x0 ) is a solution of the transformed Dirac equation, provided ψ(x) is a solution
of the original one.
Eq. (40) is enough to construct the matrices S(Λ). By direct inspection one observes that

S † (Λ) = γ 0 S −1 (Λ)γ 0 ⇒ ψ̄ 0 (x0 ) = S −1 (Λ)ψ̄(x) . (42)

The fact that S −1 (Λ) 6= S † (Λ) is not surprising, and is due to the fact that the Lorentz
group is non-compact, and therefore it does not admit unitary finite-dimensional repre-
sentations.
One can construct bi-linear products ψ̄Γψ, with Γ a 4 × 4 matrix. We now show that Γ
can be decomposed into a set of bi-linears, each having a definite transformation property
under the Lorentz group. Since Γ is 4 × 4 matrix, we expect to find 16 such bi-linear
products, constructed out of linearly independent matrices. Already we can find 5 such
bi-linears:
ψ̄ ψ → ψ̄S −1 (Λ)S(Λ)ψ = ψ̄ ψ (scalar) ,
(43)
ψ̄ γ µ ψ → ψ̄S −1 (Λ)γ µ S(Λ)ψ = Λµν ψ̄ γ ν ψ

(vector) ,

We can construct 6 more matrices by considering


i
Σµν = [γ µ , γ ν ] . (44)
4
Note that γ µ γ ν is not linearly independent from the previous matrices because {γ µ γ ν } =
2g µν 1. This gives
i
ψ̄ Σµν ψ → ψ̄ S −1 (Λ) [γ µ , γ ν ]S(Λ)ψ = Λµρ Λνσ ψ̄ Σµν ψ

(tensor) . (45)
4
In addition to the four γ-matrices, we can construct their product which is conventionally
known as γ 5 :
 
5 0 1 2 3 i µ ν ρ σ −12 0
γ ≡ iγ γ γ γ = µνρσ γ γ γ γ = , (46)
4! 0 12

which satisfies

(γ 5 )2 = 1, {γ 5 , γ µ } = 0, (γ 5 )† = γ 5 . (47)

The factor of i is to make then matrix Hermitian. Using γ 5 , we can construct 5 more
bi-linears
ψ̄ γ 5 ψ → ψ̄ S −1 (Λ)iµνρσ γ µ γ ν γ ρ γ σ S(Λ)ψ
= i µνρσ Λµα Λνβ Λργ Λσδ ψ̄ γ α γ β γ γ γ δ ψ

(48)
= det(Λ) ψ̄ i αβγδ γ α γ β γ γ γ δ ψ = det(Λ) ψ̄ γ 5 ψ (pseudo-scalar) ,
ψ̄ γ 5 γ µ ψ → det(Λ) Λµν ψ̄ γ 5 γ ν ψ

(pseudo-vector) .

We have then found a set of 16 linearly independent matrices (check that they are linearly
independent!)
i
1, γ 5 , γ µ , γ µ γ 5 , Σµν = [γ µ , γ ν ] , (49)
4
so that any bi-linear ψΓψ can be written as a sum of terms with definite transformation
properties, i.e. transforming in a clear way as a scalar, pseudo-scalar, vector, pseudo-
vector and tensor. (This is why the Feynman rule for a pseudo-scalar interacting with a
particle-anti-particle pair has a γ 5 for example.)
The most common use of γ 5 is in the projectors PL = (1 − γ 5 )/2 and PR = (1 + γ 5 )/2.
You can check explicitly that these behave like projectors (ie. P 2 = P and PL PR = 0).
When these act upon a Dirac spinor they project out either the component with “left-
handed” chirality or with “right-handed” chirality. These projectors therefore appear
when considering weak interactions, for example, as W bosons only couple to left-handed
particles. One has to take care when defining the handedness of antiparticles because

ψ L = ψL† γ 0 = ψ † PL γ 0 = ψ † γ 0 PR = ψPR . (50)

A left-handed anti-particle appears with a right-handed projection operator next to it and


vice-versa.

3 Quantum Electro-Dynamics
In this section, we will develop the theory of quantum electro-dynamics (QED) which
describes the interaction between electrically charged fermions and a vector field (the
photon Aµ ).
3.1 The QED Lagrangian
In this course, we have so far considered spin-0 and spin-1/2 particles. We will postpone a
detailed discussion of spin-1 particles until section 5.1. For the time being, we start from
the Maxwell’s equations in the vacuum in relativistic notation:

∂µ F µν = J ν , where F µν = ∂ µ Aν − ∂ ν Aµ , (51)

and J ν is a conserved current, i.e. satisfying ∂ν J ν = 0. Maxwell’s equations can be derived


from the Lagrangian
1
L = Lem + Lint , Lem = − F µν Fµν , Lint = −J µ Aµ , (52)
4
by applying Euler-Lagrange equations
∂L ∂L
∂µ − = −∂µ F µν + J ν = 0 . (53)
∂(∂µ Aν ) ∂Aν

The Dirac equation for ψ and its equivalent for ψ can be derived from the Lagrangian

LDirac = ψ(iγ µ ∂µ − m)ψ . (54)

The starting point for the QED Lagrangian is then the sum of Lem and LDirac . However,
in order to make the theory describe interactions, we must include a term which couples
Aµ to ψ and ψ. If we wish Maxwell’s equation to be valid, this term has to be of the
form Lint = −J µ Aµ , with J µ a conserved vector current. We then observe that the vector
current J µ = ψ̄ γ µ ψ is conserved if ψ is a solution of Dirac equation. In fact


∂µ J µ = ψ̄ 
∂ ψ + ψ̄ (∂ψ) = (−mψ̄) + ψ̄ (mψ) = 0 . (55)

Therefore, a good candidate for the electromagnetic current describing an electron of


charge −e is
J µ = −e ψ̄ γ µ ψ , (56)
where −e multiplies the vector current so as to be sure that the resulting Coulomb potential
arising from the solution of the static Maxwell’s equations is the expected one. Using the
above current, we obtain:
1
L = Lem + LDirac + Lint = − F µν Fµν + ψ̄ (i
∂ − m)ψ + eψ̄ γ µ ψAµ . (57)
4
Notice that L is invariant with respect to the “gauge” transformations

ψ(x) → ψ 0 (x) = e−ieα(x) ψ(x) , Aµ (x) → A0µ (x) = Aµ (x) + ∂µ α(x) . (58)

Notice that the addition of the interaction term Lint is equivalent to the replacement

∂µ → Dµ = ∂µ − ieAµ . (59)
This prescription is known as “minimal coupling” and automatically ensures that the
Lagrangian is gauge invariant. The use of gauge invariance to introduce interactions will
be covered in detail in the Standard Model course next week. This gives
1
L = − F µν Fµν + ψ(iγ µ (∂µ + ieAµ )ψ . (60)
4

The fact that L is invariant under the gauge transformations in eq. (62) means that Aµ
contains unphysical degrees of freedom. This is clear in view of the fact that a massless
vector field contains two physical polarisations, whereas Aµ has four degrees of freedom. In
order to eliminate this degeneracy, a “gauge-fixing” condition is imposed. A possible choice
of a gauge condition is the so-called Coulomb gauge, in which ∇ · A = 0. Although this
condition eliminates the two additional degrees of freedom, it breaks Lorentz covariance.
A common choice that preserves Lorentz covariance is the Lorentz gauge:

∂µ Aµ = 0. (61)

This corresponds to choosing the gauge parameter α such that α = −∂µ Aµ above. In
this gauge, the Maxwell equations become Aν = 0.
Notice that the Lorentz gauge condition reduces the number of degrees of freedom in A
from four to three. Even now though Aµ is not unique. A transformation of the form

Aµ → A0µ = Aµ + ∂µ χ , χ = 0 , (62)

will also leave the Lagrangian unchanged. At classical level we can eliminate the extra
polarisation “by hand”, but at quantum level this cannot be done without giving up
covariant canonical commutation rules. The way out, which can only be summarised, is
to add a gauge-fixing Lagrangian Lgf , so that the full QED Lagrangian becomes

1
LQED = Lem + LDirac + Lint + Lgf , Lgf = − (∂µ Aµ )2 . (63)

Using this Lagrangian as a starting point, and an extra condition on physical states, only
the two physical polarisations propagate on-shell. Notice that setting ξ = 0 corresponds
to enforcing the Lorentz gauge condition ∂µ Aν = 0, otherwise the equations of motions
give ∂µ Aν = 0, i.e. ∂µ Aν is a free field.

3.2 Feynman Rules


Feynman developed a method of organising the calculation of scattering amplitudes in
terms of diagrams. Starting from a set of vertices (or interactions), each corresponding
to a term in the Lagrangian and a set of links (or propagators), you build every possible
diagram corresponding to your initial and final state. Each piece comes with a “rule” and
the combination of these give the scattering amplitude (actually iM).
Incoming
p q
u(p)
p →
µ ieγ µ
v(p)
p →
k
µ
εµ (p)
p →

Outgoing
p
i(p + m) u(p)
p →
p2 − m2 + iε
v(p)
p →
µ ν
−i pµ pν
 
µν
g − (1 − ξ) 2 ε∗µ (p)
p
2
p + iε p p → µ

Figure 4: The Feynman rules for QED. Wavy lines represent a photon and straight lines
represent any charged fermion. The arrow on the straight line tells you it is a particle or
anti-particle depending on whether it is with or against momentum flow. The polarisation
vectors εµ (p) will be discussed in section 5.2.

In the quantum field theory course at this school, you learn how to derive the “Feynman
rules” for scalar φ4 theory. The principles are the same here so in this course we will state
the Feynman rules for QED and learn how to work with them. The Feynman rules are
shown in figure 4. The left-hand column represents internal parts of the diagram while
the right-hand column gives the rules for external fermions and photons.
A few comments are necessary here:

1. Individual pieces of a Feynman diagram are a mixture of matrices, vectors, co-


vectors and scalars. They do not commute. The final amplitude is a number and
therefore you must follow each fermion line from a spinor (either outgoing particle
or incoming anti-particle) through the series of matrices to finish on an anti-spinor
(either incoming particle or out-going anti-particle). This corresponds to working
backwards along the fermion line. We will see this in the examples which follow.
Similarly, all Lorentz indices corresponding to photons have to be contracted.

2. The photon propagator term has a free parameter ξ. This is due to the gauge
freedom we discussed in the previous section. It does not represent a physical degree
of freedom and therefore any calculation of a physical observable will be independent
of ξ. We will most commonly work in Feynman gauge ξ = 1.

3. The propagators come with factors of iε in the denominator, otherwise they would
have poles on the real axis and any integral over p would not be well-defined. The
e(p) e(p′ ) e(p) e(p′)

↓q

µ(k) µ(k ′ )
µ(k) µ(k ′ )

Figure 5: Building the leading-order Feynman diagram for Coulomb scattering. We start
from the initial and final states on the left-hand side. The diagram on the right is the only
way to connect these with up to two vertices.

factor of iε prescribes which direction to travel around the poles. This choice corre-
sponds to the “Feynman prescription”, which ensures causality.

4. The interaction vertex contains only one flavour of fermion. We know that the
emission of a photon does not change an electron to a quark for example.

5. There are addtional factors of (−1) in the following scenarios:

(a) an anti-fermion line runs continuously from an initial to a final state;


(b) there is a closed fermion loop;
(c) between diagrams with identical fermions in the final state.

These arise from the anti-commutation properties of fermionic operators which is


beyond the scope of this course. This sign can be important to get the relative
phase between diagrams correct, as happens for instance in Bhabha scattering.

Examples: Coulomb Scattering

As a first example, we consider Coulomb scattering:

e(p) µ(k) → e(p0 ) µ(k 0 ) . (64)

We start by drawing the external particles, see left-hand side of fig. 5. We now want to
find all possible ways to connect these. There is no direct interaction between an electron
and a muon but both interact with a photon, so a possible connected diagram is the one
shown on the right-hand side. In fact, this is the only possible diagram with no more than
two vertices. The number of vertices is directly related to the powers of the coupling e
and therefore the diagram shown on the right is the leading-order (or tree-level) process.
If we consider e(p) e(k) → e(p0 ) e(k 0 ) or e+ (p) e− (k) → e+ (p0 ) e− (k 0 ) instead, there are two
diagrams with two vertices, i.e. at O(e2 ) (try this!). Both have to be added before squaring
the amplitude to have the tree-level contribution to the cross section.
If we allow ourselves more than two vertices, there are many more diagrams we can draw.
Since the number of external particles doesn’t increase, these must contain closed loops
and, therefore, they represent higher-loop processes. In this course, we will limit ourselves
to tree-level processes. Loop-diagrams will be covered in the phenomenology course.
Now we will construct the tree-level amplitude for Coulomb scattering from the rules in
Fig. 4. Keeping in mind the earlier warning about the ordering of matrices and spinors,
we take each fermion line in turn. The electron line gives

u(p0 ) (ieγ µ ) u(p) . (65)

In spin-space, this is co-vector–matrix–vector, which is a number. In Lorentz space it has


one free index µ and is therefore a vector. Similarly, for the muon line we get

u(k 0 ) (ieγ ν ) u(k) . (66)

Lastly, for the propagator with momentum q = p0 − p = k − k 0 in Feynman gauge, we get


−igµν
, (67)
q 2 + iε
so that the full amplitude is
gµν
iM = ie2 [u(p0 ) γ µ u(p)] [u(k 0 ) γ ν u(k)] . (68)
q2
We will drop the iε from now on, as we will not need it in this example.
Just as in quantum mechanics, in order to compute the probability of this process hap-
pening, we must calculate |M|2 . We will now add specific indices to label the spins,
r, r0 , s, s0 . In order to describe an unpolarised physical scattering process, we will average
over initial-state spins and sum over final-state spins. This convention is represented by a
bar as follows:
2 2 2 2
2 1 X 1 XXX
|M| = |M|2
2 r=1 2 s=1 r0 =1 s0 =1
1 e4 X
= 2 2
[ur0 (p0 ) γ µ ur (p)][ur0 (p0 ) γ ρ ur (p)]∗ (69)
4 (q ) r,r0
X
× [us0 (k 0 ) γµ us (k)][us0 (k 0 ) γρ us (k)]∗ ,
s,s0

where we have explicitly evaluated the metric contractions for brevity.


To evaluate the products in eq. (69) we will use the results from section 2.1. We will take
the pieces corresponding to the electron line first. Since [ur0 (p0 )γ ρ ur (p)]∗ is a number, its
complex conjugate is its hermitian conjugate. Therefore

[ur0 (p0 )γ ρ ur (p)]∗ = u†r (p)γ ρ† γ 0† ur0 (p0 ) = u†r (p)γ 0 γ ρ ur0 (p0 ) = ur (p)γ ρ ur0 (p0 ) , (70)
where we have used γ ν† = γ 0 γ ν γ 0 , which you showed on the problem sheet. We now use
eq. (37) to find
X X
[ur0 (p0 ) γ µ ur (p)][ur0 (p0 ) γ ρ ur (p)]∗ = ur0 (p0 ) γ µ ur (p)ur (p)γ ρ ur0 (p0 )
r,r0 r,r0
X (71)
= ur0 (p0 )γ µ (p + m) γ ρ ur0 (p0 ) .
r0

We will use m for the electron mass and M for the muon mass. It is now useful to add a
component index in spinor-space like you would do in normal linear algebra. Schematically
we have
X
ur0 i Γij ur0 j , (72)
r0

where Γ represents the chain of γ-matrices in eq. (71). Now that we are explicitly labelling
the components, we can swap the order of the terms to get
X
Γij ur0 j ur0 i = Γij (p 0 + m)ji = Tr(γ µ (p + m) γ ρ (p 0 + m)) . (73)
r0

We could have anticipated that we would get a trace as we need to get a single number
from a series of matrices. Working from the anti-commutation relations, one can readily
show the following identities (see problem sheet):
Tr(odd number of γ matrices) = 0 , Tr(γ µ γ ν ) = 4g µν ,
(74)
Tr(γ µ γ ν γ ρ γ σ ) = 4(g µν g ρσ − g µρ g νσ + g µσ g νρ ) .
Therefore, eq. (73) equals
4pν p0σ (g µν g ρσ − g µρ g νσ + g µσ g νρ ) + 4m2 g µρ . (75)
The same series of steps gives
X
[us0 (k 0 ) γµ us (k)][us0 (k 0 ) γρ us (k)]∗ = 4k α k 0β (gµα gρβ − gµρ gαβ + gµβ gαρ ) + 4M 2 gµρ .
s,s0
(76)
Substituting these results into eq. (69) gives
2 8e4
(pk) (p0 k 0 ) + (pk 0 )(p0 k) + 2m2 M 2 − M 2 (pp0 ) − m2 (kk 0 ) .

|M| = (77)
(q 2 )2
We will now rewrite the invariants which appear in the above equation in terms of the
centre-of-mass energy squared, s and the exchanged momentum-squared, q 2 = t. We have
2(pk) = (p + k)2 − m2 − M 2 = s − m2 − M 2 , 2(p0 k 0 ) = s − m2 − M 2
2(pp0 ) = −(p − p0 )2 + 2m2 = −q 2 + 2m2 , 2(kk 0 ) = −q 2 + 2M 2 (78)
2(pk 0 ) = 2p·(p + k − p0 ) = s + q 2 − m2 − M 2 , 2(p0 k) = s + q 2 − m2 − M 2 ,
which finally gives
2 2e4
(s − m2 − M 2 )2 + (s + q 2 − m2 − M 2 )2 + 2q 2 (m2 + M 2 ) .

|M| = (79)
(q 2 )2
This expression can be further simplified by introducing the further invariant u = (p −
k 0 )2 = (p0 − k)2 :
2 2e4
(s − m2 − M 2 )2 + (u − m2 − M 2 )2 + 2t (m2 + M 2 ) .

|M| = (80)
t2
The above equation gives the probability that the corresponding process occurs at a given
point in phase space. In the next section, we will derive how to calculate a total cross
section (or a total decay width) from amplitudes squared.

4 Calculation of Cross Sections


Ultimately it is not the amplitude we really want to calculate, but its integral over phase
space to give the total cross section if it is a scattering process or the total decay width if
it is a decay.

4.1 Phase Space Integrals


We must integrate over all the allowed phase space, which means all possible momentum
configurations of the final-state particles. This result, divided by the flux of incoming
particles, will give the total cross section.
In principle, we must integrate over over a 4-dimensional phase space for each particle f
in the final state, but we must impose that each satisfies its on-shell condition p2f = m2f .
We therefore must have
Y Z d4 pf Y Z d4 pf
2 2 0
4
(2π)δ(pf − m )Θ(pf ) = 4
(2π) δ((p0f )2 − p2f − m2 )Θ(p0f )
f
(2π) f
(2π)
(81)
d3 pf
Y Z
= 3 (2E )
,
f
(2π) f

q
where Ef = p2f + m2 . Although the final expression explicitly separates the depen-
dence on E and p, it is still Lorentz invariant as the original expression is clearly Lorentz
invariant. Eq. (81) is frequently referred to as the Lorentz Invariant Phase Space mea-
sure (LIPS). The factors of 2π correspond to the conventions used for momentum space
integrations in QFT.
We now need to normalise this expression to the flux of incoming particles. This is done
by multiplying by the flux factor, F. For the scattering of two incoming particles, this is
usually written as
1
F= , (82)
4Ea Eb |v a − v b |

where Ei and v i are the energy and velocity of each incoming particle.1 A neater, equivalent
form which explicitly demonstrates the Lorentz invariance of this quantity is
1
F= p . (83)
4 (pa pb )2 − m2a m2b

In the massless limit s  m1 , m2 , this simplifies to F ' 1/(2s). Finally, we must impose
total conservation of momentum to find
! !
Y Z d3 pf 2 X
σ=F 3 (2E )
|M| (2π)4 δ 4 pf − p1 − p 2 . (84)
f
(2π) f
f

If you wish to calculate a total decay width instead, the expression is very similar. The
only difference is that the flux factor becomes
1
F= , (85)
2M
where M is the mass of the decaying particle. The total decay width, Γ, is therefore given
by
! !
1 Y Z d 3 pf 2 4 4
X
Γ= |M| (2π) δ pf − pM . (86)
2M f
(2π)3 (2Ef ) f

4.2 Return to Coulomb Scattering


We may now calculate the relativistic cross section for Coulomb scattering, using our result
from section 3.2. Eq. (84) applied to this example gives

d3 p 0 d3 k0
Z
2
σ=F 3 0 3 0
|M| (2π)4 δ 4 (p0 + k 0 − p − k) . (87)
(2π) (2Ep ) (2π) (2Ek )

As this expression is Lorentz invariant, we are free to choose which frame to evaluate it
in. This is an extremely powerful tool to evaluate these integrals, as a careful choice can
lead to considerable simplifications. We will choose the centre-of-mass frame here so that
p = −k. We can easily do the the k0 integration using three of the δ-functions to give
Z 3 0
dp 1 2
|M| (2π)δ Ep0 + Ek0 − Ep − Ek .

σ=F 3 0 0
(88)
(2π) 4Ep Ek
1
You can find a motivation for the flux factor in Aitchison and Hey and a more complete derivation in
Peskin and Schröder chapter 4.5.
We will proceed by transforming to spherical polar coordinates, d3 p0 = |p0 |2 d|p0 |dΩ, where
we have written the solid angle, sin θ dθ dφ, as dΩ:

F |p0 |2
Z
0 2 0 0

σ= dΩd|p | 0
|M| δ E p + Ek − Ep − Ek . (89)
(2π)2 4Ep0 Ek

We now make the change of variable |p0 | → E = Ep0 + Ek0 , which has Jacobian factor

∂E E|p0 |
= (90)
∂|p0 | Ep0 Ek0

to get

F |p0 | √  F |p0 |
Z Z
2 2
σ= dΩdE |M| δ E − s = dΩ √ |M| , (91)
(2π)2 4E (2π)2 4 s

where it is understood that k0 = −p0 with |p0 | determined from E = s. The only
undefined variables are the angles which remain to be integrated over. We could now
2
substitute the expression for |M| explicitly in terms of these angles but it is actually
informative to instead study the differential cross section

dσ F |p0 | 2
= 2
√ |M| . (92)
dΩ 16π s

We will now consider the high energy limit where s  m2e , m2µ . In this limit, the three
Mandelstam invariants are given by

s = 4p2 , t = −4p2 sin2 (θ/2) , u = −4p2 cos2 (θ/2) , (93)

which gives
2
+ u2 2e4
 
2 4s 4 θ
|M| ' 2e = 1 + cos . (94)
t2 sin4 (θ/2) 2
Note that this amplitude squared has no dependence on the azimuthal angle φ. Using the
conventional notation α = e2 /(4π), we obtain

dσ α2 1 + cos4 (θ/2)
' . (95)
dΩ 2s sin4 (θ/2)

4.3 The Coulomb Potential


The same calculation may be used to calculate the cross section for the scattering of a
relativistic particle from an external Coulomb potential by working in the rest frame of
the muon and taking mµ → ∞. This is illustrated in fig. 6.
k ′ = (Ek′ , k′ )

θ
k = (Ek , k)

Figure 6: Scattering by an external Coulomb potential.

Repeating the same calculation in this limit yields

dσ α2
1 − v 2 sin2 (θ/2)

= 2 2 4
dΩ 4k v sin (θ/2)
  (96)

1 − v 2 sin2 (θ/2) ,

=
dΩ R

where v = |k|/Ek and

α2
 

= (97)
dΩ R 4k2 v 2 sin4 (θ/2)

is the Rutherford cross section which was calculated in preschool problem 9. The extra
v 2 -term in eq. (96) then gives the relativistic correction to this. This result is entirely due
2
to the electron being a spin-1/2 particle. If it were spin-0 instead, |M| would look much
simpler as there are no fermion traces to be performed and in that case we would find that
there is no relativistic correction.

4.4 e+ e− Annihilation
The calculation we have just performed is almost identical to e+ (p0 ) e− (p) → µ+ (k) µ− (k 0 ).
Although this now involves anti-particles, there is still one single diagram at leading-order
and the trace algebra is very similar. Indeed we can re-interpret the incoming e+ as an
outgoing e− with momentum −p0 , and the outgoing µ+ as an incoming µ− with momentum
−k. Then we do find explicitly that
2 2
|Me+ (p0 )e− (p)→µ+ (k0 )µ− (k) | = |Me− (p)µ− (−k)→e− (−p0 )µ− (k0 ) | . (98)

This is an example of “crossing symmetry”. Note in general that there is an additional


minus sign for each fermion which swaps from the initial to final state or vice versa. This
is because, for example,
X X
ur (p0 )ur (p0 ) = p 0 + m −→ vr (−p0 )v r (−p0 ) = −p 0 − m = −(p 0 + m) . (99)
r r
In this case there are two minus signs whose combined effect gives just one.
If in e+ e− -annihilation we take the approximation me = 0, we find
2 8e4 
(pk)2 + (pk 0 )2 + m2µ (kk)0 ,

|M| = 2
(100)
s
Once again, choosing to work in the centre-of-mass frame, we find
r
α2 4m2µ 4m2µ 4m2µ
     
dσ 2
= 1− 1+ + 1− cos θ . (101)
dΩ e+ e− →µ+ µ− 4s s s s

If we again take the high-energy limit where s  m2µ , this reduces to


α2
 

= (1 + cos2 θ) . (102)
dΩ e+ e− →µ+ µ− 4s
We can now convert the above result to a total cross section by performing the integral
over the solid angle. This gives
4πα2
σ(e+ e− → µ+ µ− ) ' . (103)
3s
Now, when an electron and positron annihilate, other fermions may be produced. If these
are quarks, they are then observed in the detector as hadrons. The same calculation gives
nf
+ − 4πα2 X 2
σ(e e → hadrons) = Nc Qi , (104)
3s i=1

plus higher-order corrections, where there are Nc colours in each of the nf massless flavours
of quarks with charge Qi . Therefore the ratio
σ(e+ e− → µ+ µ− )
R= (105)
σ(e+ e− → hadrons)
has been used to measure the number of colours to be Nc = 3.

5 Photon Scattering
In this section we will calculate the scattering amplitude for eγ → eγ. In order to do that
we need first to consider how to treat incoming and outgoing photons.

5.1 Photon Polarisation


We seek to find a plane-wave solution corresponding to a free photon (like our treatment
for Dirac particles in section 2.1). It will have the form
Aµ (x) = εµ (k) e−ik·x , (106)
where εµ (k) is the polarisation vector of the photon. In the Lorentz gauge of eq. (61), the
photon equation of motion in eq. (51) is

Aµ = 0 , (107)

and is automatically satisfied by a solution of the form in eq. (106), provided k 2 = 0. The
Lorentz gauge condition gives an additional constraint on the polarisation vector

k·ε(k) = 0 . (108)

However, there is still freedom here because, given a polarisation vector ε which solves this
equation, any other vector of the form ε0 = ε + λ k will also be a solution, which corre-
sponds to the propagation of an extra unphysical longitudinal photon, with a polarisation
proportional to kµ . This freedom is usually used to set ε0 = 0 such that k·ε = 0 so that
the two physical polarisations εα , with α = 1, 2, are in the transverse direction, and are
chosen to be orthonormal. A useful relation we will use in the following is
2
X ki ki
εαi (k)εαj (k) = δ ij − k̂ i k̂ j , where k̂ i = = 0. (109)
α=1
|k| k

The Feynman rule for an incoming photon is simply εµ (k) while for an outgoing photon
it is ε∗µ (k), as shown in Fig. 4.
As for fermion spins, for unpolarised processes you compute the total cross section by
averaging over incoming polarisations and summing over outgoing polarisations. Let us
consider the case of a general process with one external incoming photon. The matrix
element would have the form

iM = Aµ εµ (k) . (110)

The left-hand side is a physical quantity, hence it should give the same result for any
choice of the gauge. Had we chosen ε + λ k instead, this implies that Aµ kµ has to vanish.
This is a “Ward Identity” for QED, and is therefore a test of gauge-invariance.
Squaring the scattering-amplitude over the physical polarisations gives
2
X 2
X
|Aµ εαµ (k)|2 = Aµ A∗ν εαµ (k) ε∗α
ν (k)
α=1 α=1
(111)
= A A (δ ij − k̂ i k̂ j ) ,
i j

using eq. (109). The equation Aµ kµ = 0 implies Ai k̂ i = A0 and hence


2
X
|Aµ εαµ (k)|2 = Ai Ai − A0 A0 = −Aµ Aν gµν . (112)
α=1
p k′

p p′

k k′
k p′

Figure 7: The two tree-level diagrams for e(p) γ(k) → e(p0 ) γ(k 0 ).

This could be done for each photon in turn if there were more in the process, and we find
the general result that
2
X
εαµ ε∗α
ν → −gµν . (113)
α=1

We have used the → notation of Peskin and Schröder here as the result is not an exact
equality in the absence of the rest of the matrix element, but the result is nonetheless true
in any practical calculation.

5.2 Compton Scattering


There are two diagrams at leading order for this process, shown in Fig. 7. Following the
Feynman rules in Fig. 4 and the rules for external photons in the previous subsection, we
find that the sum of the two diagrams gives

k0 + m
p − 
 
2 ∗0µ 0 ν 0 p + 
k+m
iM = −ie ε (k ) ε (k) u(p ) γµ γν + γν γµ u(p) . (114)
(p + k)2 − m2 (p − k 0 )2 − m2

You can check explicitly that the above amplitude does indeed satisfy the appropriate QED
Ward Identities, i.e. replacing εν (k) with k ν gives M = 0, and similarly when replacing
ε∗0µ (k 0 ) with k 0µ (see tutorial sheet).
We now square the amplitude to get
2 1X 1 X
|M| = |M|2
2 γ pol 2 e spin
2 ! (115)
(pk 0 )
  
4 (pk) 1 1 1 1
= 2e + + 2m2 − +m 4
− .
(pk 0 ) (pk) (pk) (pk 0 ) (pk) (pk 0 )

The calculation of the spin traces in this case requires the identities

γµ γ µ = 4 , γµ γ ρ γ µ = −2γ ρ , (116)
k ′ = (ω ′ , k′ )

p = (m, 0)
θ

k = (ω, k)

p′ = (E ′ , p′ )

Figure 8: The Compton scattering process in the rest frame of the incoming electron.

from the problem sheet. We will again choose a suitable reference frame to simplify the
calculation. In this case, it is convenient to work in the rest frame of the incoming electron
as shown in fig. 8. We can use energy conservation to compute ω 0 :
m2 = p02 = (p + k − k 0 )2 = m2 + 2m(ω − ω 0 ) − 2ωω 0 (1 − cos θ)
ω (117)
⇒ ω0 = .
1 + (ω/m)(1 − cos θ)
In this frame, we therefore have
ω0
 
2 4 ω
|M| = 2e + − sin2 θ . (118)
ω0 ω
The explicit dependence on the electron mass cancels with the factors of m in ω 0 . It is
however present in the flux factor F = 1/(4mω). We now compute the integral over the
phase space to get
d3 p 0 d3 k 0 ω0
 
1 ω
Z
σ= 2e 4
+ − sin θ (2π)4 δ 4 (p0 + k 0 − p − k) .
2
4mω (2π)3 (2E 0 ) (2π)3 (2ω 0 ) ω0 ω
(119)
We can again do the integral over d3 k0 using the spatial parts of the δ-function. Then we
transfer to spherical polars and find
 0 2 
α2 ω0

dσ ω ω 2
= + − sin θ . (120)
dΩ 2m2 ω ω0 ω

A nice check of this result is to take the low-energy limit where ω  m. Then ω ' ω 0 and
we find
dσ α2 2

= 1 + cos θ . (121)
dΩ 2m2
This is the Thomson cross section for the scattering of classical electromagnetic radiation
by a free electron. In the other limit, the high-energy limit where ω  m, we have
0 m dσ α2 1
ω ' ⇒ ' . (122)
1 − cos θ dΩ 2mω 1 − cos θ
and the cross section is strongly peaked for small angles. This leads to a logarithmic
enhancement when you perform the angular integration. These “collinear” logarithms
arise whenever massless particles are emitted; this will be discussed in more detail in the
phenomenology course.
Note that, since ω > ω 0 , eq. (122) holds strictly for (1 − cos θ) > m/ω. For smaller angles,
eq. (121) holds and
dσ α2
' 2. (123)
dΩ m
The forward (small scattering angle) Compton scattering cross section is then a valuable
method to measure the QED coupling α.

6 Strong Interactions
In this section we will develop the theory of the strong interactions, quantum chromo-
dynamics (QCD). The major difference between QED and QCD is that the gluons are
self-interacting because they also carry colour charge (unlike the charge-neutral photon).

6.1 QCD Lagrangian


The particles which carry colour charge are

Spin-1/2: six families of quarks (up, charge and top with electric charge +2/3;
down, strange and bottom with electric charge -1/3)
For each flavour, there are Nc = 3 of these.

Spin-1: 8 = (Nc2 − 1) massless gluons.

The QCD Lagrangian for a quark of mass m is


1
LQCD = − F aµν Fµνa
+ ψ i (iDij − mδij )ψj ,
4 (124)
µ
with Dij = ∂ µ δij + igs taij Aaµ , Fµνa
= ∂µ Aaν − ∂ν Aaµ + gs f abc Abµ Acν .

The a, i and j indices are gauge group indices which are discussed further below. The
sum over these is implicit in eq. (124). Each ta is a 3 × 3 matrix in colour space. The ta
matrices do not commute with each other, but obey the following algebra

[ta , tb ] = if abc tc , (125)

which is reminiscent of the algebra of angular momentum operators, [Ji , Jj ] = iεijk Jk .


Here, in place of the alternating tensor εijk , we have the “structure constants” f abc (which
a
also appear in Fµν ). These are also completely anti-symmetric under the swapping of any
pair of indices.
Just as the Ji generate the rotation group, SU (2), the ta generate the colour symmetry
group, SU (3). We choose to take the Pauli matrices as a representation of SU (2). For
SU (3) we choose to take the representation where ta = 12 λa and the λa are the Gell-Mann
matrices:
     
0 1 0 0 −i 0 1 0 0
λ1 =  1 0 0  , λ2 =  i 0 0  . λ3 =  0 −1 0  ,
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
     
0 0 1 0 0 −i 0 0 0
λ4 =  0 0 0  , λ5 =  0 0 0  , λ6 =  0 0 1  , (126)
1 0 0 i 0 0 0 1 0
   
0 0 0 1 0 0
7 8 1 
λ =  0 0 −i ,  λ =√ 0 1 0 .
0 i 0 3 0 0 −2
In practice, we are not interested in calculating one particular colour component and
instead work with sums over all colours which ultimately leads to traces over the ta -
matrices. We will see explicit examples of this in the sections that follow and here just
collect some useful identities:
1 X X
Tr(ta ) = 0, Tr(ta tb ) = δ ab , taij tajk = CF δik , f abc f abd = CA δ cd ,
2 a a,b (127)
4
where CF = , CA = 3 .
3
Notice that we have labelled with a = 1, . . . , 8 the gluon indices and with i = 1, . . . , 3 the
quark indices. Particular care must be taken when these identities combine to give a trace
of a δ-function:
δ aa = Nc2 − 1 = 8 (the number of gluons)
(128)
δii = Nc = 3 (the number of quarks) .

The QCD Lagrangian LQCD is invariant under the infinitesimal “gauge” transformations
ψi (x) → δij − igs θa (x)taij ψ(x) ,

(129)
Aaµ (x) → Aaµ (x) + Dµab θb (x) ,

where Dµab is the covariant derivative in the “adjoint” representation, the one under which
the gluon fields transforms under SU (3), as opposed to the “fundamental” representa-
tion, which rules the transformation of quark fields. In particular, the adjoint covariant
derivative is given by
Dµab = ∂µ δ ab + igs Acµ (T c )ab , (T c )ab = if acb = −if abc . (130)
The matrices T a , as needed for any generator of a representation of SU (3), satisfy the
same commutation rules as ta :
[T a , T b ] = if abc T c . (131)
These are nothing else than the Jacobi identity satisfied by the structure constants f abc :

f abc f cde + f bdc f cae + f dac f cbe = 0 . (132)

Notice that the gauge transformation for Aaµ involves the strong coupling gs :

Aµ → Aµ + ∂µ θa + gs f abc θb Acµ = Aaµ + ∂µa θa + O(gs ) , (133)

and only at lowest order in gs does it reduce to the analogous transformation for QED.
As in QED, in order to quantise the QCD Lagrangian, we need to introduce a “gauge-
fixing” term, for instance
1
Lgf = − (∂µ Aµa )2 . (134)

We now describe the Feynman rules for QCD. The quark and gluon propagators are
identical to those for QED except they are also accompanied by the appropriate delta-
function in colour space (see fig. 9). The coupling between two quarks and a gluon is now

i(p + m)
p→ δkj
j k
p2 − m2 + iε

µ p→ ν −ig µν
a
δ ab
b p2 + iε
Figure 9: The Feynman rules for the quark and gluon propagators (the latter is in Feynman
gauge ξ = 1).

given in terms of colour matrices, taij as shown in fig. 10. Notice that the Dirac matrix
γ µ also still appears as it must for spin-1/2 particles. The colour matrices and Dirac
matrices do not interact with each other (they act on different vector spaces). The ‘a’
is the “adjoint” index and is associated with the gluon. The k and j are “fundamental”
indices associated with the outgoing and incoming fermion line respectively.

j k
−igs γ µ takj
µ igsγ µ Tkj
a

Figure 10: The Feynman rule for a quark-quark-gluon vertex.


a b


gs f abc (g µν (p − q)ρ + g νρ (q − r)µ + g ρµ (r − p)ν )

c
−igs2 f abe f cde (g µρ g νσ − g µσ g νρ )
a b

+f ace f bde (g µν g ρσ − g µσ g νρ )

+f ade f bce (g µν g ρσ − g µρ g νσ )


d c

Figure 11: Three and four gluon vertices which arise from eq. (124). All momenta are
taken to be incoming.

a
Returning to the Lagrangian, in QCD Fµν has an extra term compared to QED, as required
by gauge invariance. (Technically this term is present for QED too, but QED is an
“Abelian” gauge theory which means that the structure constants are zero). Multiplying
out F aµν Fµν
a
give extra terms with 3 and 4 gauge fields. These correspond to new three-
and four-gluon vertices as shown in fig. 11.

6.2 Gauge Invariance


The presence of the non-commuting colour matrices illustrates that SU (3) is a non-Abelian
gauge group. We can see the effect of this by studying the QCD equivalent of photon pair
production, q(p) q̄(p0 ) → g(k) g(k 0 ), shown in fig. 12. In QED, the matrix element squared

p k p k p k

p’ k’ p’ k’ p’ k’

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 12: Feynman diagrams for the process q q̄ → gg.

for this process can be obtained from that of Compton scattering via crossing.
One immediate effect is obvious – there is now a third diagram including the three-gluon
vertex. If we sum the contributions from the first two diagrams we find

M(a)+(b) = A(a)+(b)
µν ε∗µ (k)ε0∗ν (k 0 ),
− −k0 (135)
 
(a)+(b) 2 0 b p k a a p b
Aµν = −igs v(p ) γν t  γµ t + γµ t  γν t u(p) ,
(p − k)2 (p − k 0 )2
where we have implicitly assumed that gluon k has colour a and polarisation index µ, and
gluon k 0 has colour b and polarisation index ν. At this order, see eq. (133), gauge invari-
ance corresponds to testing whether the replacement µ → µ + λkµ leaves the amplitude
(a)+(b) µ
invariant. This is equivalent to testing the condition for the Ward Identity, Aµν k = 0:

A(a)+(b)
µν k µ = −igs2 [ta , tb ]v(p0 )γν u(p) 6= 0 . (136)

The non-zero commutator makes these diagrams alone not gauge-invariant. Adding di-
agram (c) gives a contribution which exactly cancels this (try this!) but yields another
term proportional to kµ0 . This vanishes when we remember the whole expression is con-
tracted with ε0∗ν (k 0 ), and so gauge invariance is only obeyed once we project onto physical
polarisations. This wasn’t necessary in QED.
Recall in the QED case in section 3.2, we used Aµν k µ = 0 to show that, in practical
calculations, we can always make the replacement
2
X
εαµ ε∗α
ν → −gµν . (137)
α=1

Although the right-hand summed all polarisations and not only the physical transverse
ones, in actual calculations the unphysical longitudinal gluon polarisations automatically
cancelled. This is no longer the case in QCD, where one has to sum strictly over physical
polarisations. However, this can make calculations more cumbersome, so it might still be
useful to sum over all polarisations, and to cancel in some way the unphysical degrees of
freedom. How this cancellation is performed depends on the gauge. In covariant gauges,
like the Feynman gauge, this is done by introducing extra fields, called the ghost fields.
The alternative is to use the so-called physical gauges, that ensure that that only physical
degrees of freedom propagate on shell.

Ghost Fields

To understand how the cancellation of unphysical polarisations actually arises in a covari-


ant gauge, we need to revert to the case of photon pair production in QED. When we
make the replacement in eq. (137), we are exploiting the fact that QED is unitary, i.e.
probability is conserved through time evolution. A non-trivial implication of unitarity is
that, at the lowest order in perturbation theory, twice the imaginary part of the forward
amplitude for the process e+ e− → e+ e− has to be equal to amplitude squared for the
process e+ e− → γγ, when we integrate over the photon phase space and sum over physi-
cal photon polarisations. This is illustrated in Fig. 13, which shows the only intermediate
2

2 Im + =

Figure 13: Unitarity relation for the process e+ e− → γγ. The shaded blob represent the
sum of all possible subdiagrams that can give rise to two photons in the final state at the
lowest order in perturbation theory.

states that, at the considered order in perturbation theory, give a non-zero imaginary part,
namely two virtual photons. Furthermore, it is possible to show that the imaginary part of
any Feynman diagram is obtained by putting on shell in all possible ways the intermediate
propagators (i.e. cutting the diagram) by replacing i/(p2 − m2 + iε) in each of them by
(2π)Θ(p0 )δ(p2 − m2 ). This divides each Feynman diagram into two subdiagrams on either
side of the cut. On one side of the cut, one uses standard Feynman rules. On the other
sides, one needs to apply complex conjugation to all Feynman vertices and propagators.
Cuts of a diagram that conflict with energy-momentum conservation do not give any con-
tribution to the imaginary part. The result of this cutting procedure for the present case
is illustrated in Fig. 14. The dashed line on the right-hand side of the figure represents
the only cut of the diagram that gives a non-zero imaginary part, obtained by putting on
shell the intermediate photon propagators. If the amplitude is computed in the Feynman

2 Im =

Figure 14: Pictorial representation of the cutting rules needed to compute the imaginary
part of the forward amplitude e+ e− → e+ e− mediated by two virtual photons. The
shaded blob represents the sum all possible subdiagrams that can give two photons in the
intermediate state, that is, the two diagrams on the left-hand side of Fig. 13.

gauge, for an intermediate photon of momentum k, we have to perform the replacement


i
−gµµ0 2
→ −gµµ0 (2π)Θ(k0 )δ(k 2 ) . (138)
k + iε
Let us call Aµν the contribution to the diagram on the left of the cut in Fig. 14. From
the Ward identity kµ Aµν = 0, we obtain that the contribution of gluon k to the imaginary
part of the amplitude becomes
2
d4 k d3 k
Z Z X
4
2 µν
(−gµµ0 )(2π)Θ(k0 )δ(k )A = 3
A µν
αµ (k)∗α
µ0 (k) , (139)
(2π) (2π) 2k0 α=1
where α = 1, 2 is the index labelling photon physical polarisations. This verifies explicitly
the unitary relation represented in Fig. 13. The latter means that, in QED, making the
replacement in eq. (137) corresponds to exploiting the unitarity of the theory to compute
an amplitude squared through the imaginary part of the corresponding forward amplitude.
In the case of QCD, as we have seen in the previous section, the fact that kµ Aµν 6= 0 implies
that the amplitude squared for the process q q̄ → gg is not given by the imaginary part of
the forward amplitude q q̄ → q q̄, when only gluons are considered as intermediate states.
In fact, the cut forward amplitude contains the contribution of non-physical longitudinal
polarisations, which do not contribute to the amplitude squared for q q̄ → gg. This would
violate unitarity, so there has to be additional fields that are responsible for the cancellation
of the contribution of non-physical polarisations in the imaginary part of the forward
amplitude. These new fields are called ghosts. They are scalar fields, but satisfy Pauli
exclusion principle like fermions. They transform under SU (3) in the same way as gluons,
i.e. in the adjoint representation. The Feynman rules for ghosts are shown in fig. 15.
They can propagate and couple to gluons, but never appear in physical final states. If

b c
q
q→ i
gs f abc q µ δ ab
µ a b q2 + iε

Figure 15: The Feynman rules for ghost fields, which are constructed explicitly to cancel
unphysical degrees of freedom.

we now consider the imaginary part of the forward q q̄ amplitude, at the lowest order in
perturbation theory we need to include not only gluons as intermediate states, but ghosts
as well, as pictorially illustrated in Fig. 16. The ghost-antighost loop contributes to the
imaginary part of the forward amplitude with a factor (−1), just like a normal fermion
loop, so as to cancel the contribution of the unphysical longitudinal gluon polarisations
when summing over all diagrams. The resulting imaginary part equals the amplitude
squared for the process q q̄ → gg, integrated over the gluon phase space and summed over
physical gluon polarisations, as required by unitarity of QCD.

Physical Gauges

Alternatively, we can impose a so-called “physical gauge” condition on the gluon fields
to eliminate unphysical polarisations from the start. This eliminates the need for ghosts,
which do not interact with gluons anymore, but complicates the gluon propagator. In
place of the Lorentz gauge condition ∂ µ Aaµ = 0, we impose

Aaµ nµ = 0 , (140)
2

+ =

Figure 16: Pictorial representation of the unitarity constraint for QCD discussed in the
text. Longitudinal polarisations for on-shell gluons in the cut amplitude on the left-hand
side of the equality are cancelled by the contribution of the ghost-antighost loop. Each
blob represents the sum of the three diagrams in Fig. 12.

for some arbitrary reference vector nµ . This is done by adding the gauge-fixing Lagrangian
1 a µ 2
Lgf = − (A n ) , (141)
2ξ µ

and taking the limit ξ → 0, thus enforcing the gauge condition in eq. (140).
The new expression for the propagator (for ξ = 0) is shown in fig. 17. When we use a

q→ q µ nν + q ν nµ qµqν
 
µ ν ab i µν
δ 2 −g + − n2
a b q + iε (qn) (qn)2

Figure 17: The gluon propagator when working in a physical gauge, Aaµ nµ = 0.

physical gauge, whenever we sum over polarisations, we can make the replacement
2
X q µ nν + q ν nµ qµqν
εαµ (q)ε∗α
ν (q) → −gµν + − n2 . (142)
α=1
(qn) (qn)2

The different choices of reference vector nµ correspond to different choices of the gauge.
One can explicitly check that results for physical quantities, such as cross sections, are
independent of this choice.
A relevant example of a physical gauge is the light-cone gauge, in which n2 = 0. In such a
gauge, if we have an on-shell gluon q = (ω, q), we can choose n = (1, −q/ω). In this case
2
q µ nν + q ν nµ X α
−gµν + = εµ (q)ε∗α
ν (q) , (143)
(qn) α=1

so that the replacement gives exactly the sum over the physical polarisations introduced
in section 5.1. The expression in eq. (143) is the one that must be used in covariant gauges
if one does not want to introduce unphysical amplitudes squared with ghosts in the final
state.
(a) (b)

Figure 18: Sample “loop” Feynman diagrams: (a) one of the one-loop corrections to
Coulomb scattering and (b) a one-loop correction to the photon propagator.

7 Renormalisation

7.1 Dimensional regularisation and renormalisation scale


As mentioned in section 3.2, starting from the Feynman rules one can construct diagrams
with loops, as for example the diagrams shown in fig. 18. The presence of loops means that
momentum-conservation at each interaction vertex is no longer sufficient to determine the
momentum in each leg. For example, k can take any value in the diagrams shown in fig. 18.
We must therefore integrate over all possible values of unconstrained loop momenta. For
example, the result for the diagram in fig. 18(b) is
d4 k Tr[γµ (
k + p + m)γν (
k + m)]
Z
2
(ie) , (144)
(2π) (k − m )((k + p) − m2 )
4 2 2 2

with p the photon momentum and d the number of space-time dimensions. As the integral
runs over all values of k, it includes very large values of k. Counting the powers of k,
there are six of them in the numerator and four in the denominator, which implies that
this integral diverges. In general, for any integral of the form
dd k N (k)
Z
(145)
(2π)4 M (k)
we define the superficial degree of divergence, D, to be the result of the naı̈ve power-
counting:

D = d + (powers of k in N) − (powers of k in M) . (146)

If D ≥ 0, then the integral is said to be superficially divergent. Such divergences are called
ultra-violet (UV) because they arise whenever loop R momenta get large. The boundary case
of D = 0 is a logarithmic divergence (think of dk 1/k). The term “superficial” is used
because there can be other factors which can affect the actual degree of divergence. In
the example above, gauge invariance actually implies that the final result of the integral
in eq. (144) must be proportional to (p2 gµν − pµ pν ). Therefore the divergence is only
logarithmic, and not quadratic as it appears from naı̈ve power counting.
The main point, though, is not the degree of divergence, but the fact that one finds
divergences at all. These higher-loop corrections were supposed to be corrections in the
perturbative series, hence smaller than those appearing at the previous perturbative order.
For many years, this caused a major problem for the development of perturbation the-
ory. However, there exists a well-defined procedure to “remove” these divergences which
is called renormalisation. The basic idea behind renormalisation is that the parameters
appearing in the Lagrangian do not need to be physical quantities, but their value is deter-
mined by comparing perturbative predictions to actual experimental data. For instance,
the value of e can be extracted by measuring the Compton differential cross section at
small angles. Therefore, infinities that eventually appear in perturbative calculations can
be in principle reabsorbed in a redefinition of the parameters entering the Lagrangian. In
practice, this amounts to rescaling all quantities in the Lagrangian by a “renormalisation
constant”, Z. For instance, for a field φ we have

φ −→ φ0 = Zφ φR . (147)

The field φ0 is called “bare” field, as opposed to the “renormalised” field φR , and Zφ is
called renormalisation constant. This procedure has to be repeated for all fields, masses
and coupling constants. Provided that all infinities in the theory can be removed with
a finite number of renormalisation constants Z, then the theory is said to be renormalis-
able. After the renormalisation constants have been fixed, we can calculate all physical
quantities in terms of the renormalised quantities and the results will be both finite and
unambiguously defined.
The renormalisation constants are calculated according to some procedure that is called
“renormalisation scheme”. This consists in computing a suitable set of correlation func-
tions, and imposing that these functions are finite at any order in perturbation theory.
In this procedure one finds divergent integrals, which have to be regularised in some way.
The regularisation actually provide means to parameterise the divergence. One approach
is to implement a momentum cut-off, Λ, so as to artificially remove the region with large
momentum. The most common approach though is called “dimensional regularisation”.
Here we decrease the term d in eq. (146) to a lower value, so that we calculate all integrals
in d = 4 − 2 dimensions instead of d = 4. The integration measure becomes
d4 k d4−2 k
−→ , (148)
(2π)4 (2π)4−2
and for each dimensionsless coupling gR one performs the replacement
4−d
gR → µ 2 gR (µ) = µ gR (µ) . (149)

The factor of µ is essential to preserve the correct dimensions of the bare coupling in d
dimensions. The renormalised coupling gR stays dimensionsless and depends now on the
scale µ. The latter quantity is the famous renormalisation scale and it is the price that
we pay for renormalisation as our finite calculations are now all dependent upon µ.
To summarise, the steps to perform renormalisation within dimensional regularisation are:

1. Compute all integrals in terms of renormalised quantities.


2. All UV divergences appear as 1/-poles.

3. Define the renormalisation functions Z so as to cancel the poles in  (and maybe


some finite terms).

After renormalisation, eq. (147) depends on both  and µ, as follows:

φ0 () = Zφ (µ, ) φR (µ) , (150)

and a similar expression holds for all couplings and masses. Both φ0 and Z are infinite for
 → 0, whereas φR (µ) stays finite, but depends on the unphysical renormalisation scale µ.
In a renormalised theory then, even tree-level diagrams depend on the renormalisation
scale, through the coupling for example. The dependence on the renormalisation scale
would dissappear only if we were able to calculate physical quantities to all orders in
perturbation theory. Although this is unpractical, calculating one or two extra orders in
perturbation theory can reduce the dependence considerably. However, this does mean
that any theoretical calculation now depends on a free parameter, and it is exactly this
parameter which leads to a way to estimate the “theory uncertainty”. In fact, consider an
observable O(αR (µ), µ, {Qi }), where {Qi } is a set of characteristic scales for the process.
If we know O(n) , the perturbative expansion of O at order n in perturbation theory, we
have
O(n) (αR (µ0 ), µ0 , {Qi }) = O(n) (αR (µ), µ, {Qi }) + O(αR
n+1
(µ)) , (151)
so that the variation of µ around some central value µ0 produces automatically a higher-
order term. Notice that O(n) (αR (µ), µ, {Qi }) might contain ln(Qi /µ). This is why the
central scale µ0 is normally chosen of the order of the typical value that the scales Qi can
assume. For example in gg → H, one would typically take µ0 ∼ mH .
The obvious way to gauge how the strength of the dependence on the scale in a calculation
is to vary the scale and see how the result varies. If the dependence is very weak, the
result will be negligible. If the dependence is very strong, the variation will be large.
The consensus of the community is to quote the theoretical uncertainty when the central
scale is varied by a factor of 2 in each direction. One should remember that this is only an
uncertainty of the dependence on the renormalisation scale and not a strict error bar. This
is illustrated by the plot in fig. 19, which is taken from Gehrmann-De Ridder, Gehrmann,
Glover & Pires, arXiv:1301.7310. It shows the scale dependence for inclusive jet production
in the gluon-gluon channel at LO, NLO and NNLO. Indeed the variation decreases each
time indicating that the sensitivity to the scale is decreasing. The fact that the lines do
not overlap is a clear sign that these uncertainty bands are not error bands.

7.2 Running Coupling


Suppose we have chosen a renormalisation scale µ. How do we measure a coupling αR (µ)?
We normally consider an observable O(αR (µ0 ), µ0 , {Qi }), compute it at the highest possible
3
×10
90

dσ/dp (pb)
LO
s=8 TeV

T
NLO
80 anti-kT R=0.7 NNLO
MSTW2008nnlo
70 µ =µ =µ
R F
80 GeV < pT < 97 GeV

60

50

40

30

20
1 µ/p
T1

Figure 19: Plot showing the scale dependence for inclusive jet production at LO, NLO and
NNLO, taken from Gehrmann-De Ridder, Gehrmann, Glover & Pires, arXiv:1301.7310.

order in perturbation theory, and compare the obtained number with experimental data:
O(n) (αR (µ0 ), µ0 , {Qi }) = Oexp ⇒ αR (µ) . (152)
By doing this for various observables, characterised by different typical scales µ, one can
actually measure the dependence of the coupling on the renormalisation scale µ. This
dependence can be predicted theoretically, and the comparison of the predicted dependence
with the one that is actually observed represents one of the most stringent tests of the
validity of a given QFT. This is illustrated for QCD in fig. 20, where one sees an astonishing
agreement between the predicted “running” of the QCD coupling with the renormalisation
scale Q, and what is observed in experimental data.
The theoretical object that dictates how a coupling evolves with the renormalisation scale
is the beta function β(αR ), defined as
∂αR
µ2 2
= β(αR ) = −β0 αR 3
− β1 α R + .... (153)
∂µ2
There are various ways to compute the beta function, which in general depends on the
renormalisation scheme used. However, one can show that the first two coefficient of the
beta function, β0 and β1 , are independent of the renormalisation scheme. If we consider
a scheme tied to dimensional regularisation (e.g. the so-called MS scheme), one has the
relation
α0 () = µ2 Zg2 (, µ2 )αR (µ2 ) , (154)
where α0 = g02 /(4π) and αR = gR2 /(4π). The crucial observation is that the bare coupling
α0 does not depend on µ. Therefore, its logarithmic derivative with respect to µ2 is zero:
µ2 ∂Zg2
  
2 ∂α0 2 2 2 2 ∂αR
0=µ = µ Zg (, µ )  + 2 2 αR + µ . (155)
∂µ2 Zg ∂µ ∂µ2
Figure 20: The QCD coupling αs as a function of the renormalisation scale Q, in theory
and experiment, taken from arXiv:1512.0519.

This gives

µ2 ∂Zg2 µ2 ∂Zg2
 
∂αR
µ2 2 = −  + 2 2 αR ≡ β(, αR ) → β(αR ) = − lim 2 2 αR ,  → 0.
∂µ Zg ∂µ →0 Zg ∂µ
(156)
In any scheme based on dimensional regularisation we have

αR (µ2 ) (1)
Zg (, µ2 ) = 1 + Zg + . . . . (157)

Therefore the first term of the beta function is just obtained from the 1/ pole of Zg , as
follows
(1)
µ2 ∂Zg2 2Zg ∂αR
β(αR ) = − lim 2 2
αR = − lim µ2 2 αR = −β0 αR
2
⇒ β0 = −2Zg(1) . (158)
→0 Zg ∂µ →0  ∂µ
| {z }
=−αR

(1)
The calculation of Zg can be performed using any quantity that involves an interaction
vertex. A way that is common to both QED and QCD is to consider the renormalised
interaction Lagrangian
p Z1
Lint → Zg Z2 Z3 (gR ψ̄R AR ψR ) = Z1 (gR ψ̄R AR ψR ) , ⇒ √ .
Zg = (159)
Z2 Z3
√ √
Here we have used the ubiquitous notation Zψ = Z2 and ZA = Z3 . The function
Z1 contains all UV divergences associated with loop corrections to the interaction vertex,
whereas Z2 and Z3 contain UV divergences arising in the calculations of the fermion
and gauge-boson propagators respectively. In QED, a powerful Ward identity implies
Z1 = Z2 , so that the beta function can be calculated just from all the loop corrections to
the propagator in the unrenormalised theory. For the case of QED

(1) 1
β0 = −2Zg(1) = Z3 = − . (160)

Inserting this expression in the beta function we obtain
1 2
βQED (α) = α . (161)

which means that the QED coupling, at least until the beta function is dominated by its
first term, becomes stronger with energy.
In QCD instead the Ward identity Z1 = Z2 does not hold any more. However, it holds
at least for the part of these renormalisation functions that depends on CF . Since, at
(1)
one loop, Z2 is proportional to CF , its contribution to the beta function cancels exactly
(1)
with the abelian contribution to Z1 . Therefore, the only contributions to the QCD beta
(1)
function at one loop come from the renormalisation function of the gluon Z3 and the
(1) (1)
non-abelian part of Z1 , which we call Z1 |n.a . The two depend on the gauge, but this
gauge dependence cancels in the combination
(1) (1)
β0 = −2Zg(1) = Z3 − 2Z1 |n.a . (162)

For instance, in the Feynman gauge

(1) αs 5CA − 2nf (1) αs CF + CA


Z3 = , Z1 = − , (163)
 12π  4π
where αs = gs2 /(4π) and nf is the number of massless (a.k.a. “active”) quark flavours
contributing to the renormalisation of the gluon propagator. This gives
11CA − 2nf 2 21 2
βQCD (αs ) = − αs = − α , (164)
12π 12π s
where the latter expression corresponds to the actual value of the beta function for nf = 6
active flavours, as is the case at very high momentum scales. The fact that the beta
function of QCD is negative when αs is small means that the QCD coupling decreases
with energy. This property is known as asymptotic freedom, and is crucial to be able to
compute hadronic cross sections in terms of quarks and gluons. In fact, when probed at
short distances, hadrons appear as made up of pointlike constituents, quarks and gluons,
which interact very feebly. Therefore, the Feynman rules we have learnt so far are enough
to compute high-energy observables, for instance jet cross sections, as will be explained
in the phenomenology course. At larger distances, the QCD coupling becomes stronger
and stronger, at a point that quarks and gluons bind together to form hadrons. This
phenomenon is known as confinement.
Summary
This has been a very quick tour through some very important, deep and interesting ma-
terial. I hope it has provided some insight into the quantum field theory descriptions of
QED and QCD, and provided you with useful tools for the future.

Acknowledgements
It has been a pleasure to give this course at the 2016 HEP Summer School. I would like
to thank Nikos Konstantinidis for directing this successful school, the other lecturers and
tutors for making this such an interesting and entertaining fortnight, and the students for
engaging with the courses.

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