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View Full Version : binomial expansion of massive spin 0 propagator


RedX
Feb4-11, 06:52 PM
I've seen written the following manipulation of the KG Feynman propagator:


\frac{1}{p^2-m^2+i\epsilon}=\frac{1}{p^2+i\epsilon} \frac{1}{(1-\frac{m^2}{p^2+i\epsilon})}= \frac{1}{p^2+i\epsilon} (1+\frac{m^2}{p^2+i\epsilon}+\left(\frac{m^2}{p^2+ i\epsilon}\right)^2+...)

I don't think this can be valid unless |p^2+i\epsilon|>m^2 .

However if you are going to integrate this expression to get the inverse Fourier transform:

\int d^4p \frac{e^{ip(x-y)}}{p^2-m^2+i\epsilon}

then this integrals picks out the poles which forces p^2=m^2-2iE_p\epsilon .

However, since the epsilon term comes in with a minus sign, it could potentialy cancel out the +iepsilon term in |p^2+i\epsilon|>m^2 .

So is the binomial expansion valid?