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We carry out a detailed study of the three-point fermion-photon interaction vertex at one loop order for massive fermions in reduced quantum electrodynamics. This calculation is carried out in arbitrary covariant gauges and space-time dimensions within a recently proposed innovative approach based upon an efficient combination of the first and second order formalisms of quantum electrodynamics. This procedure provides a natural decomposition of the vertex into its components which are longitudinal and transverse to the photon momentum. It also separates the spin and scalar degrees of freedom of a fermion interacting electromagnetically, allowing us to readily establish the gauge-independence of the Pauli form factor and compute it in an expeditious manner. All incoming and outgoing momenta are taken off-shell at the outset. However, we present results for cases of particular kinematic interest whenever required. For the sake of completeness, we also provide expressions for the massive fermion self energy and photon vacuum polarization, verifying known expressions for massless reduced quantum electrodynamics and computing the renormalization constants ${\cal Z}_1$, ${\cal Z}_2$ and ${\cal Z}_3$. As we provide general expressions for the computed Green functions, we readily reproduce and confirm the results for standard quantum electrodynamics. Comparing the two cases, we infer that the Pauli form factor for reduced quantum electrodynamics is $8/3$ times that for the standard QED in four dimensions, implying a higher Land\'e $g$-factor. We expect our perturbative calculation of the fermion-photon vertex to serve as a guide for any non-perturbative construction of this Green function, invariably required in the Schwinger-Dyson equation studies of the subject., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

The baryon-meson scattering amplitude is computed within the $1/N_c$ expansion of QCD, where $N_c$ is the number of color charges. The most general expression is obtained by accounting for explicitly the effects of the decuplet-octet baryon mass difference and perturbative flavor $SU(3)$ symmetry breaking. Although the resultant expression is general enough that it can be applied to any incoming and outgoing baryons and mesons, provided that the Gell-Mann--Nishijima scheme is respected, results for $N\pi$ scattering processes are explicitly dealt with. With these, some isospin relations are verified to be valid at the physical value $N_c=3$. The expressions obtained here represent a first effort toward understanding scattering processes in the context of the $1/N_c$ expansion., Comment: 87 pages, 1 figure

We compute one-loop electron-photon vertex with fully off-shell external momenta in an arbitrary covariant gauge and space-time dimension. There exist numerous efforts in literature where one-loop off-shell vertex is calculated by employing the standard first order Feynman rules in different covariant gauges and space-time dimensions of interest. The tensor structure which decomposes this three-point vertex into the components transverse and longitudinal to the photon momentum gets intertwined in this first order formalism. The Ward-Takahashi identity is explicitly invoked to untangle the two pieces and the results are expressed in a preferred basis of twelve spin-amplitudes. We propose a novel approach based upon an efficient combination of the first and second order formalisms of quantum electrodynamics to compute this one-loop vertex. Among some conspicuous advantages is the fact that this less known second order formalism separates the spin and scalar degrees of freedom of an electron interacting electromagnetically. More noticeably, the longitudinal and transverse contributions naturally disentangle from the onset in our approach. Moreover, this decomposition leads to identities between one-loop scalar Feynman integrals with higher powers in the propagators and shifted space-time dimensions that can be used to prove the Ward-Takahashi identity at one-loop order without the need to evaluate any Feynman integral. Additionally, this natural decomposition allows us to establish the gauge-independence of the Pauli form factor through explicit cancellations of scalar Feynman integrals that depend on the gauge parameter. These cancellations naturally lead to a compact expression for the Pauli form factor in arbitrary dimensions. Wherever necessary and insightful, we make comparisons with earlier works., Comment: 14 pages, 3 Figures

We describe progress applying the \textit{Worldline Formalism} of quantum field theory to the fermion propagator dressed by $N$-photons to study multi-linear Compton scattering processes, explaining how this approach -- whose calculational advantages are well-known at multi-loop order -- yields compact and manifestly gauge invariant scattering amplitudes., Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Prepared for the Proceedings of the 20th Lomonosov Conference on Elementary Particle Physics, held in August 2021, based on a talk given by James P. Edwards on the results of [arXiv:2004.01391 [hep-th]] and [arXiv:2107.00199 [hep-th]

In the first part of this series, we employed the second-order formalism and the ``symbol'' map to construct a particle path-integral representation of the electron propagator in a background electromagnetic field, suitable for open fermion-line calculations. Its main advantages are the avoidance of long products of Dirac matrices, and its ability to unify whole sets of Feynman diagrams related by permutation of photon legs along the fermion lines. We obtained a Bern-Kosower type master formula for the fermion propagator, dressed with $N$ photons, in terms of the ``$N$-photon kernel,'' where this kernel appears also in ``subleading'' terms involving only $N$-$1$ of the $N$ photons. In this sequel, we focus on the application of the formalism to the calculation of on-shell amplitudes and cross sections. Universal formulas are obtained for the fully polarised matrix elements of the fermion propagator dressed with an arbitrary number of photons, as well as for the corresponding spin-averaged cross sections. A major simplification of the on-shell case is that the subleading terms drop out, but we also pinpoint other, less obvious simplifications. We use integration by parts to achieve manifest transversality of these amplitudes at the integrand level and exploit this property using the spinor helicity technique. We give a simple proof of the vanishing of the matrix element for ``all $+$'' photon helicities in the massless case, and find a novel relation between the scalar and spinor spin-averaged cross sections in the massive case. Testing the formalism on the standard linear Compton scattering process, we find that it reproduces the known results with remarkable efficiency. Further applications and generalisations are pointed out., Comment: 40 pages, 3 figures. Part 2 of a series started by arXiv:2004.01391 [hep-th]

Rotational bands are commonly used in the analysis of the spectra of atomic nuclei. The early version of the interacting boson model of Arima and Iachello has been foundational to the description of rotations in nuclei. The model is based on a unitary spectrum generating algebra $U(6)$ and an orthogonal (angular momentum) symmetry algebra $SO(3)$. A solvable limit of the model contains $SU(3)$ in its dynamical symmetry chain. The corresponding Hamiltonian is written as a linear combination of linear and quadratic Casimir invariants of all the algebras in the chain. Prompted by these facts, a Hamiltonian containing the $SU(3)$ quadratic Casimir squared is proposed to evaluate its effects on rotational bands. The additional term yields three undetermined parameters into the theory, which need be obtained from experiment. The lack of data does not allow one to perform a detailed numerical analysis, but a rather restricted one in terms of a one-parameter fit. Nevertheless, these additional terms provide a good description of rotational bands of two nuclei of interest, $^{156}\mathrm{Ga}$ and $^{234}\mathrm{U}$., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, 1 table

The quadratic Casimir operator of the special unitary $SU(N)$ group is used to construct projection operators, which can decompose any of its reducible finite-dimensional representation spaces contained in the tensor product of two and three adjoint spaces into irreducible components. Although the method is general enough, it is specialized to the $SU(2N_f) \to SU(2)\otimes SU(N_f)$ spin-flavor symmetry group, which emerges in the baryon sector of QCD in the large-$N_c$ limit, where $N_f$ and $N_c$ are the numbers of light quark flavors and color charges, respectively. The approach leads to the construction of spin and flavor projection operators that can be implemented in the analysis of the $1/N_c$ operator expansion. The use of projection operators allows one to successfully project out the desired components of a given operator and subtract off those that are not needed. Some explicit examples in $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$ are detailed., Comment: 23 pages, 3 tables, no figures

In the first-quantised worldline approach to quantum field theory, a long-standing problem has been to extend this formalism to amplitudes involving open fermion lines while maintaining the efficiency of the well-tested closed-loop case. In the present series of papers, we develop a suitable formalism for the case of quantum electrodynamics in vacuum (part one and two) and in a constant external electromagnetic field (part three), based on second-order fermions and the symbol map. We derive this formalism from standard field theory, but also give an alternative derivation intrinsic to the worldline theory. In this first part, we use it to obtain a Bern-Kosower type master formula for the fermion propagator, dressed with $N$ photons, in terms of the "$N$-photon kernel," where off-shell this kernel appears also in "subleading" terms involving only $N-1$ of the $N$ photons. Although the parameter integrals generated by the master formula are equivalent to the usual Feynman diagrams, they are quite different since the use of the inverse symbol map avoids the appearance of long products of Dirac matrices. As a test we use the $N=2$ case for a recalculation of the one-loop fermion self energy, in $D$ dimensions and arbitrary covariant gauge, reproducing the known result. We find that significant simplification can be achieved in this calculation choosing an unusual momentum-dependent gauge parameter., Comment: 50 pages, 4 figures

The quadrupole moments of ground state baryons are discussed in the framework of the 1/N(c) expansion of QCD, where N(c) is the number of color charges. Theoretical expressions are first provided assuming an exact SU(3) flavor symmetry, and then the effects of symmetry breaking are accounted for to linear order. The rather scarce experimental information available does not allow a detailed comparison between theory and experiment, so the free parameters in the approach are not determined. Instead, some useful new relations among quadrupole moments, valid even in the presence of first-order symmetry breaking, are provided. The overall predictions of the 1/N(c) expansion are quite enlightening., Comment: 20 pages, 7 tables

A universal description of particles with spins j greater or equal one , transforming in (j,0)+(0,j), is developed by means of representation specific second order differential wave equations without auxiliary conditions and in covariant bases such as Lorentz tensors for bosons, Lorentz-tensors with Dirac spinor components for fermions, or, within the basis of the more fundamental Weyl-Van-der-Waerden sl(2,C) spinor-tensors. At the root of the method, which is free from the pathologies suffered by the traditional approaches, are projectors constructed from the Casimir invariants of the spin-Lorentz group, and the group of translations in the Minkowski space time., Comment: Invited Contribution to the Joint proceedings of the 30 Annual Meeting of the Division of Particles and Fields of the Mexican Physical Society and the XV Mexican Workshop on Particles and Fields