Minimal subtraction scheme

In quantum field theory

Quantum field theory

Quantum field theory provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of systems classically parametrized by an infinite number of dynamical degrees of freedom, that is, fields and many-body systems. It is the natural and quantitative language of particle physics and...

, the minimal subtraction scheme, or MS scheme is a particular renormalization

Renormalization

In quantum field theory, the statistical mechanics of fields, and the theory of self-similar geometric structures, renormalization is any of a collection of techniques used to treat infinities arising in calculated quantities....

 scheme used to absorb the infinities that arise in perturbative calculations beyond leading order, introduced independently by and . The MS scheme consists of absorbing only the divergent part of the radiative corrections into the counterterms.

In the similar and more widely used modified minimal subtraction, or MS-bar scheme, one absorbs the divergent part plus a universal constant (which always arises along with the divergence in Feynman diagram

Feynman diagram

Feynman diagrams are a pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, first developed by the Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Richard Feynman, and first introduced in 1948...

calculations) into the counterterms.