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QFT Calculations in Mathematica vs Maple?

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Fred Hawes

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Jan 17, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/17/97
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Hi,
I need to convert Feynman diagrams into amplitudes and I'm tired of
doing the Dirac-algebra by hand, re-checking it and still not finding
that last error, etc. It would be nice to let some symbolic program
do it for me, if I could just settle on a specific package and learn
its syntax.

I have heard of two such packages available for Mathematica: Tracer
and FeynCalc1.0 (and there are probably a lot more). I have a manual
for FeynCalc on loan from a friend, and it looks difficult. I don't
know if anyone here has the Tracer package or its manual.

There is a package called HIP, said to have been written for
Mathematica originally but then ported to Maple, *but* it's supposed
to be full of bugs.

Maple is more "available" here, it's on all the ibm's whereas
Mathematica is only on one machine. The Mathematica license may belong
to only one guy. So I'd rather use Maple. Does anyone have any advice
on which package to use? Thanks.

Regards,
Fred Hawes


Ben Bullock

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Jan 27, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/27/97
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Fred Hawes wrote:

> I need to convert Feynman diagrams into amplitudes and I'm tired of
> doing the Dirac-algebra by hand, re-checking it and still not finding
> that last error, etc. It would be nice to let some symbolic program
> do it for me, if I could just settle on a specific package and learn
> its syntax.

By far the fastest and most powerful program for doing real
calculations in high energy physics such as traces of Dirac matrices,
four vectors, etc. etc. is Form. You can obtain the compiled binary
of the Form 1.0 from ftp site nikhefh.nikhef.nl. A .dvi manual is
also available. However I have to warn you that virtually everybody
thinks that the manual is incomprehensible. A few other freely
available tutorial introductions do exist though.

I am currently working on a Form replacement but it is not ready yet
(sorry).

--
Ben Bullock @ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Britain
email: b...@pcae.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk (If mailing from a .com address, please
put "not junk" in the subject line or your mail may be auto-ignored.)
www: http://www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/theory/ben/index.html
Lenny's page: http://www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/theory/ben/lenny/lenny.html

Ben Bullock

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Jan 30, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/30/97
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Ben Bullock wrote:

> By far the fastest and most powerful program for doing real
> calculations in high energy physics such as traces of Dirac matrices,
> four vectors, etc. etc. is Form.

Someone wrote me a rather aggressive letter saying that Form was not
very useful for their particular problem in physics. Unfortunately I
deleted their mail so let me use this forum to reply to them. I am
sure that noone thinks Form is the ideal solution to every high energy
physics problem. But, careful readers of the above will note that I
am really discussing only a subset of problems such as traces of Dirac
matrices, manipulation of large numbers of four vectors, etc., rather
than suggesting that Form is the perfect solution for every problem.

As for my own program Storm, I plan to make something which can
replace Form for a few specific tasks. The algebraic problems which
occur in my research are not soluable by bloated general-purpose
algebraic software packages such as Mathematica or Maple because of
the sheer enormous size of the expressions. I am making this
replacement firstly because I think I can drastically improve on Form,
and secondly because I am dissatisfied with Dr. Jos Vermaseren's
refusal to fix the many bugs in Form 1.0 and Form 2.0 reported to him
by me and by others of my acquaintance.

I am not interested at all in making a replacement for the bloated
general purpose packages for other people to use, although I do intend
to make my software available under a Gnu public licence.

Ben Bullock

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Feb 2, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/2/97
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I got some really weird followup emails to my previous posts by
someone called Rolf Wanker. Rolf Wanker claims to be in the next
office to Dr. Vermaseren and started writing about his sexual
frustration. He also told me he wanted to get a job in the software
industry, and he sent me a lot of some kind of computer garbage
output.

I am very sorry but I can't help any readers with their sexual
frustrations or other mental health problems.

I suggest that Rolf Wanker takes his problems to his next door
neighbour Dr. Vermaseren :-).

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