Weaving the covariant three-point vertices efficiently

Abstract

An efficient algorithm is developed for compactly weaving all the Lorentz covariant three-point vertices in relation to the decay of a massive particle $X$ of mass $m_X$ and spin $J$ into two particles $ M_{1,2}$ with equal mass $m$ and spin $s$. The closely-related equivalence between the helicity formalism and the covariant formulation is utilized so as to identify the basic building blocks for constructing the covariant three-point vertex corresponding to each helicity combination explicitly. The massless case with $m=0$ is worked out straightforwardly and the (anti)symmetrization of the three-point vertex required by spin statistics of identical particles is made systematically. It is shown that the off-shell electromagnetic photon coupling to the states $M_1$ and $M_2$ can be accommodated in this framework. The power of the algorithm is demonstrated with a few typical examples with specific $J$ and $s$ values.