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  • Open Access

Second-order renormalized Hamiltonian of Yukawa theory

Kamil Serafin*, Carter M. Gustin, and Peter J. Love†

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA

  • *Contact author: kamil.serafin.physics@gmail.com
  • †Also at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Phys. Rev. D 112, 096003 – Published 4 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/63qr-r25y

Abstract

Using the renormalization group procedure for effective particles we calculate the effective Hamiltonians in the theory of a fermion field coupled to a scalar field via the Yukawa interaction. The theory is renormalized by the addition of counterterms. Necessary counterterms are determined by computing matrix elements of the effective Hamiltonian. All calculations are performed up to the second order in the expansion in powers of the coupling constant. Renormalized effective Hamiltonians are well-defined symmetric forms acting in the Fock space as opposed to the renormalized bare Hamiltonian, which is not well defined without regularization. We introduce computational techniques that should streamline higher-order calculations and may be of independent interest.

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