Yang's theorem states that a massive spin-1 particle cannot decay into a pair of identical massless spin-1 particles. The proof starts by going to the rest frame of the decaying particle, and relies on process of elimination of possible amplitude structures.
Let →ϵV be the spin vector of the decaying particle in its rest frame, and let →ϵ1 and →ϵ2 be the polarization 3-vector of the massless particles with 3-momenta →k and −→k respectively.
In the literature, I've seen arguments saying that
M1∼(→ϵ1×→ϵ2).→ϵV, and M2∼(→ϵ1.→ϵ2)(→ϵV.→k) don't work because they don't respect Bose symmetry of the final state spin-1 particles.
But, why is M3∼(→ϵV×→ϵ1).ϵ2+(→ϵV×→ϵ2).ϵ1 excluded? Sure, it's parity violating (if parent particle is parity even), but that's not usually a problem
Thanks
Answer
Because M3 as written above actually vanishes by a simple vector identity. On the first term, write
(→ϵV×→ϵ1).→ϵ2=(→ϵ2×→ϵV).→ϵ1
which cancels the second term.
[there goes my bounty]
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