Combinatorial aspects in the one-loop renormalization of higher derivative theories

Abstract

An efficient way to calculate one-loop counterterms within the Feynman diagrammatic approach and dimensional regularization is to expand the propagators in the integrands of the Feynman integrals around vanishing external momentum. In this way, a generic one-loop diagram is reduced to a sum of vacuum diagrams. The logarithmically divergent part can be extracted by power counting arguments. In case of higher derivative theories, the standard implementation of this procedure on a computer algebra system can become quickly inefficient due to a high proliferation of terms coming from the intermediate replacement of high-rank tensor-integrals with symmetrized product of metric tensors. In this note we present a simple combinatorial solution to this problem which makes the implementation much more efficient. This method is especially relevant in the renormalization of higher derivative theories, but might as well be integrated as a standard routine in existing computer algebra programs designed to automatize Feynman diagrammatic calculations.