Classical interactions in quantum field theory

Abstract

I review the formalism, Feynman rules, and combinatorics that constrain a field to propagate ``classically", strictly in tree diagrams, either by itself, or interacting with other, purely quantum fields. The perturbation theory is reorganized by virtue of the linear terms that introduce the constraints via Lagrange multipliers, generalizing and giving results that cannot be obtained with the standard procedures which start at the quadratic terms. I apply the formalism to a theory of an $O(N)$-symmetric quantum field interacting with a ``classical" scalar field via cubic interactions in six spacetime dimensions. Using the renormalization group, I examine the effective potential, symmetry breaking with radiative corrections, the fixed points in $d=6-\epsilon$ dimensions, and compare with other works. Other possible generalizations and applications of the formalism are also discussed.