Affiliation:
1. Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Via Bonardi 9, Edificio 14 “Nave”, Campus Leonardo, 20133 Milan, Italy
Abstract
Feynman diagrams represent one of the most powerful and fascinating tools developed in theoretical physics in the last century. Introduced within the framework of quantum electrodynamics as a suitable method for computing the amplitude of a physical process, they rapidly became a fundamental mathematical object in quantum field theory. However, their abstract nature seems to suggest a wider usage, which actually exceeds the physical context. Indeed, as mathematical objects, they could simply be considered graphs that depict not only physical quantities but also biological or economic entities. We survey the analytical and algebraic properties of such diagrams to understand their utility in several areas of science, eventually providing some examples of recent applications.
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