Yang-Mills Theory on the Mass Shell

Abstract

Gauge-invariant mass-shell amplitudes for quantum electrodynamics (QED) and Yang-Mills theory are defined by dimensional regularization. Gauge invariance of the mass-shell renormalization constants is maintained through interplay of ultraviolet and infrared divergences. Quark renormalizations obey the same simple Ward identity as do the electron renormalizations in QED, while the gluon contributions to gluon renormalizations are identically zero. The simplest amplitude finite in QED, the magnetic moment, is gauge-invariant but divergent in Yang-Mills theory for both external gluon and external photon.