Ward–Takahashi identity
Identidad de Ward-Takahashi
- Date
- 1950 (Ward) / 1957 (Takahashi) · confidence high
- Place
- Oxford, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Yasushi Takahashi y John Clive Ward
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
An identity of quantum electrodynamics relating the electron's wave-function renormalization to its vertex renormalization, guaranteeing cancellation of ultraviolet divergences at all orders of perturbation theory; formulated by John Ward in 1950 and generalized by Yasushi Takahashi in 1957.
What it led to
- Essential to the consistency and renormalizability of quantum electrodynamics
- Generalized into the Slavnov-Taylor identities of non-abelian gauge theories
- Mathematical basis of the Standard Model of particle physics