Feynman diagrams
We formulate a new quantization principle for perturbative quantum field theory, based on a minimally non time-ordered product, and show that it gives the theories of physical particles and purely virtual particles. Given a classical Lagrangian, the quantization proceeds as usual, guided by the time-ordered product, up to the common scattering matrix $S$, which satisfies a unitarity or a pseudounitarity equation. The physical scattering matrix $S_{\text{ph}}$ is built from $S$, by gluing $S$ diagrams together into new diagrams, through non time-ordered propagators. We classify the most general way to gain unitarity by means of such operations, and point out that a special solution “minimizes” the time-ordering violation. We show that the scattering matrix $S_{\text{ph}}$ given by this solution coincides with the one obtained by turning the would-be ghosts (and possibly some would-be physical particles) into purely virtual particles (fakeons). We study tricks to descend and ascend in a unique way among diagrams, and illustrate them in several examples: the ascending chain from the bubble to the hexagon, at one loop; the box with diagonal, at two loops; other diagrams, with more loops.
J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2022) 088 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP12(2022)088
The maximum pole of a diagram with $V$ vertices and $L$ loops is at most $1/\varepsilon^{m(V,L)}$, where $m(V,L)=\min (V-1,L).$ The result holds in dimensional regularization, where $\varepsilon = d-D$, $d$ is the physical dimension and $D$ the continued one. Moreover, vertices are counted treating mass terms and the other non-dominant quadratic terms as “two-leg vertices”.