Search results for "quantum electrodynamics"
showing 10 items of 809 documents
Exactly solvable model of two three-dimensional harmonic oscillators interacting with the quantum electromagnetic field: The far-zone Casimir-Polder …
2005
We consider two three-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillators interacting with the quantum electromagnetic field in the Coulomb gauge and within dipole approximation. Using a Bogoliubov-like transformation, we can obtain transformed operators such that the Hamiltonian of the system, when expressed in terms of these operators, assumes a diagonal form. We are also able to obtain an expression for the energy shift of the ground state, which is valid at all orders in the coupling constant. From this energy shift the nonperturbative Casimir-Polder potential energy between the two oscillators can be obtained. When approximated to the fourth order in the electric charge, the well-known expressi…
Loss of coherence and dressing in QED
2006
The dynamics of a free charged particle, initially described by a coherent wave packet, interacting with an environment, i.e. the electromagnetic field characterized by a temperature $T$, is studied. Using the dipole approximation the exact expressions for the evolution of the reduced density matrix both in momentum and configuration space and the vacuum and the thermal contribution to decoherence, are obtained. The time behaviour of the coherence lengths in the two representations are given. Through the analysis of the dynamic of the field structure associated to the particle the vacuum contribution is shown to be linked to the birth of correlations between the single momentum components o…
Structure of the electromagnetic field around the free electron in nonrelativistic QED.
1991
We study, within the framework of nonrelativistic QED, the structure of the electromagnetic field in the neighborhood of a free spinless electron dressed by the interaction with the vacuum field. We introduce a suitable formalism that correlates electron position and field operators. The quantum average value obtained by applying correlated field operator to the dressed state gives the average value of the corresponding field quantity as a function of distance from the electron. The results obtained separately for the electric- and magnetic-field energy density around the particle display contributions that have quantum origin and that cancel in summing of the two, yielding the total energy…
The role of the ergosphere in the Blandford-Znajek process
2012
The Blandford-Znajek process, one of the most promising model for powering the relativistic jets from black holes, was initially introduced as a mechanism in which the magnetic fields extract energy from a rotating black hole. We study the evolution of force-free electromagnetic fields on regular spacetimes with an ergosphere, which are generated by rapidly rotating stars. Our conclusive results confirm previous works, claiming that the Blandford-Znajek mechanism is not directly related to the horizon of the black hole. We also show that the radiated energy depends exponentially on the compactness of the star.
The lifetime of unstable particles in electromagnetic fields
2007
We show that the electromagnetic moments of unstable particles (resonances) have an absorptive contribution which quantifies the change of the particle's lifetime in an external electromagnetic field. To give an example we compute here the imaginary part of the magnetic moment for the cases of the muon and the neutron at leading order in the electroweak coupling. We also consider an analogous effect for the strongly-decaying $\Delta$(1232) resonance. The result for the muon is Im$ \mu = e G_F^2 m^3/768 \pi^3$, with $e$ the charge and $m$ the mass of the muon, $G_F$ the Fermi constant, which in an external magnetic field of $B$ Tesla give rise to the relative change in the muon lifetime of $…
Vacuum Casimir energy densities and field divergences at boundaries
2014
We consider and review the emergence of singular energy densities and field fluctuations at sharp boundaries or point-like field sources in the vacuum. The presence of singular energy densities of a field may be relevant from a conceptual point of view, because they contribute to the self-energy of the system. They should also generate significant gravitational effects. We first consider the case of the interface between a metallic boundary and the vacuum, and obtain the structure of the singular electric and magnetic energy densities at the interface through an appropriate limit from a dielectric to an ideal conductor. Then, we consider the case of a point-like source of the electromagneti…
Vacuum induced berry phase: Theory and experimental proposal
2003
We investigate quantum effects in geometric phases arising when a two-level system is interacting with a quantized electromagnetic field. When the system is adiabatically driven along a closed loop in the parameter space, signatures of the field quantization are observable in the geometric phase. We propose a feasible experiment to measure these effects in cavity QED and also analyse the semi-classical limit, recovering the usual Berry phase results.
Electromagnetic moments of quasi-stable particle
2010
We deal with the problem of assigning electromagnetic moments to a quasi-stable particle (i.e., a particle with mass located at particle's decay threshold). In this case, an application of a small external electromagnetic field changes the energy in a non-analytic way, which makes it difficult to assign definitive moments. On the example of a spin-1/2 field with mass $M_{*}$ interacting with two fields of masses $M$ and $m$, we show how a conventionally defined magnetic dipole moment diverges at $M_{*}=M+m$. We then show that the conventional definition makes sense only when the values of the applied magnetic field $B$ satisfy $|eB|/2M_{*}\ll|M_{*}-M-m|$. We discuss implications of these re…
The electromagnetic group: Bosonic BRST charge
1990
Abstract We give an infinite-dimensional Lie group from which a group approach to quantization (GAQ) derives a Gupta-Bleuler-like quantization for the electromagnetic field. The incorporation into the group law of the gauge transformation properties of Aμ(x), Aμ(x) → Aμ(x) + ∂μφ, requires a non-conventional generator which is related to the BRST charge.
Long-range potentials and electromagnetic polarizabilities
1976
The long-range spin and velocity independent forces of electromagnetic origin which act between any two systems are studied for those cases in which no forces of this type exist to order e 2 . It is shown that they are uniquely determined by the charge, magnetic moment, and polarizabilities of both systems, not only to the dominant order r − n , but also to the next one r −( n +1) . These potentials provide the link between Compton scattering polarizabilities (response to real photons) and classically defined polarizabilities (response to static electromagnetic field). The two definitions are shown to be equivalent for neutral spinless systems; the problems arising for a neutral particle wi…