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I am studyng how to construct Feynman diagams for the perturbative expansion of the one-particle Green function (or propagator) using the book "A Guide to Feynman Diagrams in the Many-Body Problem". One of the second-order diagrams for the Green function is shown below.

enter image description here

According to the book, when we have a system of identical fermions interacting through a momentum-conserving potential (like the Coulomb potential), this diagram can't contribute. To do this, the book use only physical arguments, but I would like to show this mathematically. The problem is that I can't show that it is equal to zero. I will explain what I am doing. The perturbative expression for the Green function is

$$G(k_{1},k_{2},t,t') = \sum _{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{(-i)^{n}}{n!} \int dt_{1} \cdots \int dt_{n}\ \langle \Phi_{0}| T[H_{I}(t_{1}) \cdots H_{I}(t_{n})a_{k_{1}}(t)a_{k_{2}}^{\dagger}(t')] |\Phi_{0} \rangle$$

devided by the vacuum amplitude (I am using standard notation, so I won't spend time defining everything that appears above). We can write every interaction $H_{I}$ using creation and annihilation operators

$$H_{I}(t_{1}) = \frac{1}{2} \sum_{l} \langle l_{1}l_{2}|V|l_{3}l_{4} \rangle a_{l_{2}}^{\dagger}(t_{1})a_{l_{1}}^{\dagger}(t_{1})a_{l_{3}}(t_{1})a_{l_{4}}(t_{1}),$$

$$H_{I}(t_{2}) = \frac{1}{2} \sum_{m} \langle m_{1}m_{2}|V|m_{3}m_{4} \rangle a_{m_{2}}^{\dagger}(t_{2})a_{m_{2}}^{\dagger}(t_{2})a_{m_{3}}(t_{2})a_{m_{4}}(t_{1}),$$

and apply the Wick's theorem to express the time-ordered product using contractions of these operators. The diagram above represent the following contractions

$$ \overbrace{a_{l_{2}}^{\dagger}(t_{1})a_{m_{4}}(t_{2})} \overbrace{a_{l_{1}}^{\dagger}(t_{1})a_{k_{1}}(t)} \overbrace{a_{l_{3}}(t_{1})a_{k_{2}}^{\dagger}(t')} \overbrace{a_{l_{4}}(t_{1})a_{m_{1}}^{\dagger}(t_{2})} \overbrace{a_{m_{2}}^{\dagger}(t_{2})a_{m_{3}}(t_{2})}$$

Now, using the particle-hole notation, where $a_{k} = b_{k}$ if $k > k_{F} =$ Fermi momentum and $a_{k} = c^{\dagger}_{k}$ if $k < k_{F}$, where $b$ is the annihilation operator for a particle and $c^{\dagger}$ the creation operator for a hole, the contractions are

$$\overbrace{b_{k}(t_{1})b_{l}^{\dagger}(t_{2})} = \begin{cases} \delta_{k,l} e^{-i\varepsilon_{k}(t_{1} - t_{2})} & \text{ , } t_{1}>t_{2} \\ 0 & \text{ , } t_{1} \leq t_{2} \end{cases}$$

and

$$\overbrace{c_{k}^{\dagger}(t_{1})c_{l}(t_{2})} = \begin{cases} 0 & \text{ , } t_{1}>t_{2} \\ -\delta_{k,l} e^{-i\varepsilon_{k}(t_{1} - t_{2})} & \text{ , } t_{1} \leq t_{2} \end{cases}$$

However, by my calculations, if I use this expressions and integrate, the result is not zero. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm sorry if my question is confused...

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  • $\begingroup$ You seem to have only one kind of particle-antiparticle ($a$, $a^\dagger$), only two vertices ($t_1$ and $t_2$) with quartic couplings. The diagram you drew instead has four cubic vertices and two particles. How is that what you wrote in formulas? $\endgroup$
    – MannyC
    Commented Jul 13, 2019 at 1:05
  • $\begingroup$ The zero comes from the fermion loop of size 3. Such loops always vanish for odd sizes due to Furry's theorem: maths.tcd.ie/~fionn/qft/furry.pdf $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 13, 2019 at 1:55

1 Answer 1

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Assuming your green function is diagonal in momentum space, that first wiggly line carries an effective potential evaluated at zero wavenumber, which in most cases vanishes by nature of the interaction.

For example, in the case of jellium, there is taken to be a background positive charge, within which the electrons live, that ensures net charge neutrality and therefore the zero wavenumber fourier component of the electric field vanishes.

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