A systematization for one-loop 4D Feynman integrals

We present a strategy for the systematization of manipulations and calculations involving divergent (or not) Feynman integrals, typical of the one-loop perturbative solutions of QFT, where the use of an explicit regularization is avoided. Two types of systematization are adopted. The divergent parts are put in terms of a small number of standard objects, and a set of structure functions for the finite parts is also defined. Some important properties of the finite structures, specially useful in the verification of relations among Green's functions, are identified. We show that, in fundamental (renormalizable) theories, all the finite parts of two-, three- and four-point functions can be written in terms of only three basic functions while the divergent parts require (only) five objects. The final results obtained within the proposed strategy can be easily converted into those corresponding to any specific regularization technique providing an unified point of view for the treatment of divergent Feynman integrals. Examples of physical amplitudes evaluation and their corresponding symmetry relations verification are presented as well as generalizations of our results for the treatment of Green's functions having an arbitrary number of points are considered.

Negative dimensional approach for scalar two-loop three-point and three-loop two-point integrals

The well-known D-dimensional Feynman integrals were shown, by Halliday and Ricotta, to be capable of undergoing analytic continuation into the domain of negative values for the dimension of space-time. Furthermore, this could be identified with Grassmannian integration in positive dimensions. From this possibility follows the concept of negative-dimensional integration for loop integrals in field theories. Using this technique, we evaluate three two-loop three-point scalar integrals, with five and six massless propagators, with specific external kinematic configurations (two legs on-shell), and four three-loop two-point scalar integrals. These results are given for arbitrary exponents of propagators and dimension, in Euclidean space, and the particular cases compared to results published in the literature.

Non-planar double-box, massive and massless pentabox Feynman integrals in the negative-dimensional approach

The negative-dimensional integration method is a technique which can be applied, with success, in usual covariant gauge calculations. We consider three two-loop diagrams: the scalar massless non-planar double-box with six propagators and the scalar pentabox in two cases, where six virtual particles have the same mass, and in the case all of them are massless. Our results are given in terms of hypergeometric functions of Mandelstam variables and also for arbitrary exponents of propagators and dimension D.

NDIM achievements: massive, arbitrary tensor rank and N-loop insertions in Feynman integrals

One of the main difficulties in studying quantum field theory, in the perturbative regime, is the calculation of D-dimensional Feynman integrals. In general, one introduces the so-called Feynman parameters and, associated with them, the cumbersome parametric integrals. Solving these integrals beyond the one-loop level can be a difficult task. The negative-dimensional integration method (NDIM) is a technique whereby such a problem is dramatically reduced. We present the calculation of two-loop integrals in three different cases: scalar ones with three different masses, massless with arbitrary tensor rank, with and N insertions of a two-loop diagram.

Path integrals on a flux cone

This paper considers the Schrodinger propagator on a cone with the conical singularity carrying magnetic flux (flux cone). Starting from the operator formalism, and then combining techniques of path integration in polar coordinates and in spaces with constraints, the propagator and its path integral representation are derived. The approach shows that effective Lagrangian contains a quantum correction term and that configuration space presents features of nontrivial connectivity.

One-loop superstring amplitude from integrals on pure spinors space

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The cohomology of superspace, pure spinors and invariant integrals

The superform construction of supersymmetric invariants, which consists of integrating the top component of a closed superform over spacetime, is reviewed. The cohomological methods necessary for the analysis of closed superforms are discussed and some further theoretical developments presented. The method is applied to higher-order corrections in heterotic string theory up to alpha'(3). Some partial results on N = 2, d = 10 and N = 1, d = 11 are also given.

EVALUATING ONE-LOOP LIGHT-CONE INTEGRALS BY COVARIANTIZING THE GAUGE-DEPENDENT POLE

Making sure that causality be preserved by means of ''covariantizing'' the gauge-dependent singularity in the propagator of the vector potential A(mu)(x), we show that the evaluation of some basic one-loop light-cone integrals reproduce those results obtained through the Mandelstam-Leibbrandt prescription. Moreover, such a covariantization has the advantage of leading to simpler integrals to be performed in the cone variables (the bonus), although, of course, it introduces an additional alpha-parameter integral to be performed (the price to pay).

Probing negative-dimensional integration: Two-loop covariant vertex and one-loop light-cone integrals

The negative-dimensional integration method (NDIM) seems to be a very promising technique for evaluating massless and/or massive Feynman diagrams. It is unique in the sense that the method gives solutions in different regions of external momenta simultaneously. Moreover, it is a technique whereby the difficulties associated with performing parametric integrals in the standard approach are transferred to a simpler solving of a system of linear algebraic equations, thanks to the polynomial character of the relevant integrands. We employ this method to evaluate a scalar integral for a massless two-loop three-point vertex with all the external legs off-shell, and consider several special cases for it, yielding results, even for distinct simpler diagrams. We also consider the possibility of NDIM in non-covariant gauges such as the light-cone gauge and do some illustrative calculations, showing that for one-degree violation of covariance (i.e. one external, gauge-breaking, light-like vector n μ) the ensuing results are concordant with the ones obtained via either the usual dimensional regularization technique, or the use of the principal value prescription for the gauge-dependent pole, while for two-degree violation of covariance - i.e. two external, light-like vectors n μ, the gauge-breaking one, and (its dual) n * μ - the ensuing results are concordant with the ones obtained via causal constraints or the use of the so-called generalized Mandelstam-Leibbrandt prescription. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.

Feynman integrals with tensorial structure in the negative dimensional integration scheme

The negative-dimensional integration method (NDIM) is revealing itself as a very useful technique for computing massless and/or massive Feynman integrals, covariant and noncovanant alike. Up until now however, the illustrative calculations done using such method have been mostly covariant scalar integrals/without numerator factors. We show here how those integrals with tensorial structures also can be handled straightforwardly and easily. However, contrary to the absence of significant features in the usual approach, here the NDIM also allows us to come across surprising unsuspected bonuses. Toward this end, we present two alternative ways of working out the integrals and illustrate them by taking the easiest Feynman integrals in this category that emerge in the computation of a standard one-loop self-energy diagram. One of the novel and heretofore unsuspected bonuses is that there are degeneracies in the way one can express the final result for the referred Feynman integral.

Some integrals occurring in a topology change problem

In a paper presented a few years ago, de Lorenci et al. showed, in the context of canonical quantum cosmology, a model which allowed space topology changes. The purpose of this present work is to go a step further in that model, by performing some calculations only estimated there for several compact manifolds of constant negative curvature, such as the Weeks and Thurston spaces and the icosahedral hyperbolic space (Best space). ©2000 The American Physical Society.

Prescriptionless light-cone integrals

Perturbative quantum gauge field theory as seen within the perspective of physical gauge choices such as the light-cone gauge entails the emergence of troublesome poles of the type (k · n)-α in the Feynman integrals. These come from the boson field propagator, where α = 1, 2, ⋯ and nμ is the external arbitrary four-vector that defines the gauge proper. This becomes an additional hurdle in the computation of Feynman diagrams, since any graph containing internal boson lines will inevitably produce integrands with denominators bearing the characteristic gauge-fixing factor. How one deals with them has been the subject of research over decades, and several prescriptions have been suggested and tried in the course of time, with failures and successes. However, a more recent development at this fronteer which applies the negative dimensional technique to compute light-cone Feynman integrals shows that we can altogether dispense with prescriptions to perform the calculations. An additional bonus comes to us attached to this new technique, in that not only it renders the light-cone prescriptionless but, by the very nature of it, it can also dispense with decomposition formulas or partial fractioning tricks used in the standard approach to separate pole products of the type (k · n)-α[(k - p) · n]-β (β = 1, 2, ⋯). In this work we demonstrate how all this can be done.

Loop Integrals in Three Outstanding Gauges: Feynman, Light-Cone, and Coulomb

We apply the negative dimensional integration method (NDIM) to three outstanding gauges: Feynman, light-cone, and Coulomb gauges. Our aim is to show that NDIM is a very suitable technique to deal with loop integrals, regardless of which gauge choice that originated them. In the Feynman gauge we perform scalar two-loop four-point massless integrals; in the light-cone gauge we calculate scalar two-loop integrals contributing to two-point functions without any kind of prescriptions, since NDIM can abandon such devices - this calculation is the first test of our prescriptionless method beyond one-loop order; and finally, for the Coulomb gauge we consider a four-propagator massless loop integral, in the split-dimensional regularization context. © 2001 Academic Press.

First results for the Coulomb gauge integrals using NDIM

The Coulomb gauge has at least two advantages over other gauge choices in that bound states between quarks and studies of confinement are easier to understand in this gauge. However, perturbative calculations, namely Feynman loop integrations, are not well defined (there are the so-called energy integrals) even within the context of dimensional regularization. Leibbrandt and Williams proposed a possible cure to such a problem by splitting the space-time dimension into D = ω + ρ, i.e., introducing a specific parameter ρ to regulate the energy integrals. The aim of our work is to apply the negative dimensional integration method (NDIM) to the Coulomb gauge integrals using the recipe of split-dimension parameters and present complete results - finite and divergent parts - to the one- and two-loop level for arbitrary exponents of the propagators and dimension.

Evaluating residues and integrals through negative dimensional integration method (NDIM)

The standard way of evaluating residues and some real integrals through the residue theorem (Cauchy's theorem) is well-known and widely applied in many branches of Physics. Herein we present an alternative technique based on the negative dimensional integration method (NDIM) originally developed to handle Feynman integrals. The advantage of this new technique is that we need only to apply Gaussian integration and solve systems of linear algebraic equations, with no need to determine the poles themselves or their residues, as well as obtaining a whole class of results for differing orders of poles simultaneously.