Mass Singularities of Feynman Amplitudes

Abstract

Feynman amplitudes, regarded as functions of masses, exhibit various singularities when masses of internal and external lines are allowed to go to zero. In this paper, properties of these mass singularities, which may be defined as pathological solutions of the Landau condition, are studied in detail. A general method is developed that enables us to determine the degree of divergence of unrenormalized Feynman amplitudes at such singularities. It is also applied to the determination of mass dependence of a total transition probability. It is found that, although partial transition probabilities may have divergences associated with the vanishing of masses of particles in the final state, they always cancel each other in the calculation of total probability. However, this cancellation is partially destroyed if the charge renormalization is performed in a conventional manner. This is related to the fact that interacting particles lose their identity when their masses vanish. A new description of state and a new approach to the problem of renormalization seem to be required for a consistent treatment of this limit.