Why do Feynman rules have minus signs?

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SUMMARY

The discussion addresses the presence of minus signs in Feynman rules, specifically referencing equation 5.46 from the provided notes. It highlights two main inquiries: the singular occurrence of the i ε term and the conditions under which terms acquire minus signs, particularly in fermionic diagrams. The participants conclude that crossing fermionic legs results in a minus sign, while the reasoning behind the minus sign in the s-channel diagram of figure 27 remains unclear. This indicates a need for a more systematic approach to identifying when minus signs are necessary in calculations.

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  • Understanding of Feynman diagrams and their components
  • Familiarity with quantum field theory principles
  • Knowledge of fermionic and bosonic statistics
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  • Learn about the role of i ε in propagators and its implications
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Quantum field theorists, particle physicists, and advanced students in theoretical physics seeking to deepen their understanding of Feynman rules and the implications of minus signs in calculations.

latentcorpse
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Consider equation 5.46 in these notes:
damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/qft/qft.pdf

(i) why does only one term have the i \epsilon in it? I thought this was because the (p-p')^2-\mu^2 term can never vanish but this doesn't make sense since the \phi particle will have momentum p-p' and since momentum squares to mass squared \mu^2, surely we will actually have (p-p')^2-\mu^2=0 always?

(ii)why is one term plus and the other minus? he talks earlier about how we pick up extra minus signs for fermionic diagrams from statistics but doesn't explicitly tell us how to recognise when they are needed (well he does in the calculation on p120 but quite a common exam question is to write down the amplitude from feynman rules - you aren't going to have time to reproduce p120 every time you need to check a minus sign!)
looking at diagrams 25 and 26 it seems to be that whenever two fermionic legs cross we get a minus sign (this is why one of the terms in figure 25 gets a minus sign but none in figure 26 do since the external legs are bosonic there) but then in (5.46) which corresponds to figure 27, why does that s channel diagram get a minus sign? No external legs get crossed there? There must be an easy way of recognising when we need the minus sign?

Thanks.
 
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