Feynman rules for Coulomb gauge QCD

The Coulomb gauge in nonabelian gauge theories is attractive in principle, but beset with technical difficulties in perturbation theory. In addition to ordinary Feynman integrals, there are, at 2-loop order, Christ–Lee (CL) terms, derived either by correctly ordering the operators in the Hamiltonian, or by resolving ambiguous Feynman integrals. Renormalization theory depends on the sub-graph structure of ordinary Feynman graphs. The CL terms do not have a sub-graph structure. We show how to carry out renormalization in the presence of CL terms, by re-expressing these as ‘pseudo-Feynman’ integrals. We also explain how energy divergences cancel.     

Convergence of Feynman integrals in Coulomb gauge QCD

At 2-loop order, Feynman integrals in the Coulomb gauge are divergent over the internal energy variables. Nevertheless, it is known how to calculate the effective action, provided that the external gluon fields are all transverse. We show that, for the two-gluon Greens function as an example, the method can be extended to include longitudinal external fields. The longitudinal Greens functions appear in the BRST identities. As an intermediate step, we use a flow gauge, which interpolates between the Feynman and Coulomb gauges.     

Higher order corrections in perturbative quantum chromodynamics

We present some techniques which have been developed recently or in the recent past to compute Feynman graphs beyond one-loop order. These techniques are useful to compute the three-loop splitting functions in QCD and to obtain the complete second order QED corrections to Bhabha scattering.     

Searching for a response: the intriguing mystery of Feynman’s theoretical reference amplifier

We analyze Feynman’s work on the response of an amplifier performed at Los Alamos and described in a technical report of 1946, as well as lectured on at the Cornell University in 1946–47 during his course on Mathematical Methods. The motivation for such a work was Feynman’s involvement in the Manhattan Project, for which the necessity emerged of feeding the output pulses of counters into amplifiers or several other circuits, with the risk of introducing distortion at each step. In order to deal with such a problem, Feynman designed a theoretical “reference amplifier”, thus enabling a characterization of the distortion by means of a benchmark relationship between phase and amplification for each frequency, and providing a standard tool for comparing the operation of real devices. A general theory was elaborated, from which he was able to deduce the basic features of an amplifier just from its response to a pulse or to a sine wave of definite frequency. Moreover, in order to apply such a theory to practical problems, a couple of remarkable examples were worked out, both for high-frequency cutoff amplifiers and for low-frequency ones. A special consideration deserves a mysteriously exceptional amplifier with best stability behavior introduced by Feynman, for which different physical interpretations are here envisaged. Feynman’s earlier work then later flowed in the Hughes lectures on Mathematical Methods in Physics and Engineering of 1970–71, where he also remarked on causality properties of an amplifier, that is on certain relations between frequency and phase shift that a real amplifier has to satisfy in order not to allow output signals to appear before input ones. Quite interestingly, dispersion relations to be satisfied by the response function were introduced.

     

A Note on Feynman Path Integral for Electromagnetic External Fields

We propose a Fresnel stochastic white noise framework to analyze the nature of the Feynman paths entering on the Feynman Path Integral expression for the Feynman Propagator of a particle quantum mechanically moving under an external electromagnetic time-independent potential.     

A Note on the Stochastic Nature of Feynman Quantum Paths

We propose a Fresnel stochastic white noise framework to analyze the stochastic nature of the Feynman paths entering on the Feynman Path Integral expression for the Feynman Propagator of a particle quantum mechanically moving under a time-independent potential.     

Numerical evaluation of tensor Feynman integrals in Euclidean kinematics

For the investigation of higher order Feynman integrals, potentially with tensor structure, it is highly desirable to have numerical methods and automated tools for dedicated, but sufficiently ‘simple’ numerical approaches. We elaborate two algorithms for this purpose which may be applied in the Euclidean kinematical region and in d=4?2ε dimensions. One method uses Mellin–Barnes representations for the Feynman parameter representation of multi-loop Feynman integrals with arbitrary tensor rank. Our Mathematica package AMBRE has been extended for that purpose, and together with the packages MB (M. Czakon) or MBresolve (A.V. Smirnov and V.A. Smirnov) one may perform automatically a numerical evaluation of planar tensor Feynman integrals. Alternatively, one may apply sector decomposition to planar and non-planar multi-loop ε-expanded Feynman integrals with arbitrary tensor rank. We automatized the preparations of Feynman integrals for an immediate application of the package sector_decomposition (C. Bogner and S. Weinzierl) so that one has to give only a proper definition of propagators and numerators. The efficiency of the two implementations, based on Mellin–Barnes representations and sector decompositions, is compared. The computational packages are publicly available.     

On the importance of low-energy beta beams for supernova neutrino physics

We argue that isotropization and, consequently, thermalization of the system of gluons and quarks produced in an ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision does not follow from Feynman diagram analysis to any order in the coupling constant. We conclude that the apparent thermalization of quarks and gluons, leading to success of perfect fluid hydrodynamics in describing heavy-ion collisions at RHIC, can only be attributed to the non-perturbative QCD effects not captured by Feynman diagrams. We proceed by modeling these non-pertrubative thermalization effects using viscous hydrodynamics. We point out that matching Color Glass Condensate inital conditions with viscous hydrodynamics leads to a continuous evolution of all the components of the energy-momentum tensor and, unlike the case of ideal hydrodynamics, does not give rise to a discontinuity in the longitudinal pressure. An important consequence of such a matching is a relationship between the thermalization time and shear viscosity: we observe that small viscosity leads to short thermalization time.     

Renormalization in Coulomb gauge QCD

In the Coulomb gauge of QCD, the Hamiltonian contains a non-linear Christ–Lee term, which may alternatively be derived from a careful treatment of ambiguous Feynman integrals at 2-loop order. We investigate how and if UV divergences from higher order graphs can be consistently absorbed by renormalization of the Christ–Lee term. We find that they cannot.     

Efficient numerical evaluation of Feynman integrals

Feynman loop integrals are a key ingredient for the calculation of higher order radiation effects, and are responsible for reliable and accurate theoretical prediction. We improve the efficiency of numerical integration in sector decomposition by implementing a quasi-Monte Carlo method associated with the CUDA/GPU technique. For demonstration we present the results of several Feynman integrals up to two loops in both Euclidean and physical kinematic regions in comparison with those obtained from FIESTA3. It is shown that both planar and non-planar two-loop master integrals in the physical kinematic region can be evaluated in less than half a minute with O(10~(-3))accuracy, which makes the direct numerical approach viable for precise investigation of higher order effects in multiloop processes, e.g. the next-to-leading order QCD effect in Higgs pair production via gluon fusion with a finite top quark mass.     

State space formalism of Feynman diagram theory for acousto-optic interactions:Ⅱ. multifrequency case

A Feynman diagram theory for acousto-optic (AO) interactions is established, which provides a general method to calculate the scattering amplitudes and intensities for both single-frequency and multifrequcncy AO interactions. The method is based on counting the number of allowable Feynman diagrams. The following important assertion has been proved rigorously in this paper. The ratios of the numbers of Feynman diagrams allowable in various B ragg diffractions (isotropie, nondegeneratc birefringent, and degenerate birefringent) to that in Raman-Nath diffraction are independent of the number of different acoustic frequencies, being a function only of the order of the Feynman diagram and the diffraction order of the final state. General expressions for these ratios arc obtained. Based on this, complete perturbation solutions for the scattering amplitudes and intensities are obtained for any kind of AO interactions, any number of acoustic frcquencies, and any final state. This theory gives all results obtain     

On analytic formulas of Feynman propagators in position space

We correct an inaccurate result of previous work on the Feynman propagator in position space of a free Dirac field in(3+1)-dimensional spacetime; we derive the generalized analytic formulas of both the scalar Feynman propagator and the spinor Feynman propagator in position space in arbitrary(D+1)-dimensional spacetime; and we further find a recurrence relation among the spinor Feynman propagator in(D+l)-dimensional spacetime and the scalar Feynman propagators in(D+1)-,(D-1)-and(D+3)-dimensional spacetimes.     

Tensor structure from scalar Feynman matroids

We show how to interpret the scalar Feynman integrals which appear when reducing tensor integrals as scalar Feynman integrals coming from certain nice matroids.     

A new technique for the evaluation of Feynman diagrams in the high energy,large momentum transfer limit

The problem of finding scattering amplitudes in the high energy, large momentum transfer limit is reconsidered. We propose a novel technique of evaluating Feynman diagrams in this regime with higher order perturbative corrections in mind. The relation to other methods is discussed and the ladder diagrams in φ³ theory, recalculated up to sixth order, serve as examples.     

A points-splitting and dimensional renormalization

We consider Feynman amplitudes which are doubly regularized by means of complete points splitting of vertices and continuation in the dimension of space-time. We show how to construct a subtraction operator which leads to polynomial counterterms and to a renormalized amplitude which is finite as the regularizations are removed in either order, and corresponds to the dimensionally renormalized result in the limit of no points splitting.     

The symmetry group of Feynman diagrams and consistency of the BPHZ renormalization scheme

We study the relation between the symmetry group of a Feynman diagram and its reduced diagrams.We then prove that the counterterms in the BPHZ renormalization scheme are consistent with adding counterterms to the interaction Hamiltonian in all cases,including that of Feynman diagrams with symmetry factors.     

The Feynman integrand for the perturbed harmonic oscillator as a Hida distribution

We review some basic notions and results of White Noise Analysis that are used in the construction of the Feynman integrand as a generalized White Noise functional. We show that the Feynman integrand for the harmonic oscillator in an external potential is a Hida distribution.     

The propagator in the A0 = 0 gauge

We compute the Wilson loop in the A₀ = 0 gauge for abelian and non-abelian theories. We find to fourth order that only two choices for the longitudinal propagator are consistent with the results obtained in the Feynman and Coulomb gauges. In particular the principal value presciption does not work.     

The Feynman path integral and its optical applications

There is a fruitful analogy between mechanics and optics. To describe the transition from quantum mechanics to classical mechanics, Feynman introduced the concept of an “integral over all paths”. The Feynman integral is used here to describe the transition from wave optics to geometrical optics. We suggest simple mathematical tools that allow use the Feynman integral and its approximation to calculate the radiation transport through an optically inhomogeneous layer and through an aperture in an infinite opaque screen.     

Feynman integral and perturbation theory in quantum tomography

We present a definition for tomographic Feynman path integral as representation for quantum tomograms via Feynman path integral in the phase space. The proposed representation is the potential basis for investigation of Path Integral Monte Carlo numerical methods with quantum tomograms. Tomographic Feynman path integral is a representation of solution of initial problem for evolution equation for tomograms. The perturbation theory for quantum tomograms is constructed.