Feynman diagrams: The power of a picture

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present a brief introduction to QED Feynman diagrams. We will start with a concise historical description of how this powerful diagrammatic technique was developed by Feynman. Next, the basic elements, i.e. propagators and vertices, which form the diagrams are presented. We discuss the physical meaning associated with the diagrams and list the main Feynman rules, which are needed for the calculations at the lower perturbation level. Then, the following three fundamental QED processes are analyzed: (i) Bhabha scattering, (ii) Compton and (iii) the annihilation of the electron-positron pair. Finally, we will discuss how the perturbative series, at higher order, is generated graphically for the specific case of the Moller scattering.