Does the Z boson pole show up in the photon propagator?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the relationship between the Z boson pole and the photon propagator in quantum field theory (QFT). It establishes that while both the photon and Z boson share quantum numbers, the photon propagator does not inherit the pole structure of the Z boson due to gauge symmetry, specifically the Ward identity. The conversation highlights the importance of parity in understanding the properties of these particles, noting that the photon has odd parity while the Z boson does not, which affects their interactions in the weak force.

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springbottom
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TL;DR
Z and photon have same quantum numbers, how are their pole structures of the (interacting) propagator related?
If I look at the photon propagator <A_mu (x) A^nu(0) > in momentum space, as I understand it I am to compute this by summing up all the self-energy diagrams of the photon, which look like:

photon -> stuff -> photon

In particular, since the photon shares the same quantum numbers as the Z, you get a collection of diagrams that are:

photon -> stuff -> Z -> stuff -> Z -> stuff -> photon

(where the stuff connecting photon with Z could be a fermion loop for example). In this case, it would seem that the pole structure of the Z is inherted by the photon propagator? In particular, if there is some complex momenta value at which the Z boson has a pole, then the photon propagator should also have the same pole? Is this true?
[I may have messed something very basic up, I am still quite bad at basic QFT]
 
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No, because of gauge symmetry (Ward identity)
 
springbottom said:
Z and photon have same quantum numbers,

Why do you think that? The photon has odd parity. The Z doesn't even have parity.
 
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Vanadium 50 said:
Why do you think that? The photon has odd parity. The Z doesn't even have parity.
I thought that the photon and Z both had helicity and not parity. Was I mistaken?
 
The weak interaction does not conserve parity. Parity is not a good quantum number when discussing the weak interaction.
 
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For instance the Z boson couple to fermions via gamma5 (couple differently for left- and right-handed fermions), the photon does not care about such things.

1657561494693.png

this diagram does not contribute to the 1PI diagrams of the photons self-energy
 
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