[Physics] Fermion propagator as derivative of scalar propagator

dirac-equationfermionspropagatorquantum-field-theory

I've seen this expression in two spacetime dimensions,

$$ \langle \bar{\psi}(x) \psi(0) \rangle = \gamma^\mu{\partial_\mu} \langle \phi(x) \phi(0) \rangle $$

The LHS is the fermion propagator, and the expectation on RHS is the scalar propagator. For 2 dimensional case, the scalar propagator is (assuming all massless)

$$ \langle \phi(x) \phi(0) \rangle = \int \frac{d^2p}{4\pi^2} \frac{1}{p^2} e^{-ipx} $$

Two questions:

  1. Why the fermion propagator is derivative of scalar propagator?
  2. How are the gamma matrices defined in two dimensions?

Best Answer

The free scalar and fermion propagator is $$ G_\psi(x,y) = \int \frac{d^dp}{(2\pi)^d} \frac{-i(\gamma^\mu p_\mu + m)}{ p^2 + m^2 - i \epsilon} e^{- i p \cdot ( x - y ) } $$ The scalar propagator is $$ G_\phi(x,y) = \int \frac{d^dp}{(2\pi)^d} \frac{-i}{ p^2 + m^2 - i \epsilon} e^{- i p \cdot ( x - y ) } $$ Clearly, $$ G_\psi(x,y) = ( i \gamma^\mu \partial_\mu -m)G_\phi(x,y)~. $$

PS - In any dimension, the gamma matrices are defined to satisfy $\{ \gamma^\mu , \gamma^\nu \} = - 2 \eta^{\mu\nu}$.

PPS - I am using metric signature $(-,+,+,+,\cdots)$ in this answer.

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