Quantum Electrodynamics

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XVI

   PDF

2. Propagators and Scattering Theory

   • Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt

   Pages 1-38

3. The Propagators for Electrons and Positrons

   • Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt

   Pages 39-76

4. Quantum-Electrodynamical Processes

   • Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt

   Pages 77-241

5. Summary: The Feynman Rules of QED

   • Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt

   Pages 243-253

6. The Scattering Matrix in Higher Orders

   • Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt

   Pages 255-328

7. Two-Particle Systems

   • Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt

   Pages 329-359

8. Quantum Electrodynamics of Strong Fields

   • Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt

   Pages 361-424

9. Quantum Electrodynamics of Spinless Bosons

   • Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt

   Pages 425-440

10. Back Matter

    Pages 441-447

    PDF

We are pleased by the positive resonance of our book which now necessitates a fourth edition. We have used this opportunity to implement corrections of misprints and amendments at several places, and to extend and improve the discussion of many of the exercises and examples. We hope that our presentation of the method of equivalent photons (Example 3. 17), the form factor of the electron (Example 5. 7), the infrared catastrophe (Example 5. 8) and the energy shift of atomic levels (Example 5. 9)arenow even better to understand. The new Exercise 5. 10 shows in detail how to arrive at the non-relativistic limit for the calculation of form factors. Moreover, we have brought up-to-date the Biographical Notes about physicists who have contributed to the dev- opment of quantum electrodynamics, and references to experimental tests of the t- ory. For example, there has been recent progress in the determination of the electric and magnetic form factors of the proton (discussed in Exercise 3. 5 on the Rosenbluth formula) and the Lamb shift of high-Z atoms (discussed in Example 5. 9 on the energy shift of atomic levels), while the experimental veri cation of the birefringence of the QED vacuum in a strong magnetic eld (Example 7. 8) remains unsettled and is a topic of active ongoing research.

• Boson
• electrodynamics
• electron
• quantum electrodynamics
• renormalization
• scattering

From the reviews of the third edition:

"Quantum electrodynamics (QED) nowadays is considered to be physics’ most precise theory beneath the theory of general relativity. … Greiner’s and Reinhardt’s book provides both teachers and students with all that is necessary to understand QED from its origin. And to the best of my knowledge, it is one of the few books that really do so. … as a reference book, it forms a good companion to any other book on the shelf to show exactly how things are done." (T. Beier, Contemporary Physics, Vol. 45 (3), 2004)

"This completely revised and corrected new edition provides several new examples and exercises to enable deeper insight to formalism and application of Quantum electrodynamics. It is a thorough introductory text providing all necessary mathematical tools together with many examples and worked problems." (Revista Espanola de Fisica, Vol. 17 (6), 2003)

"The particular volume on quantum electrodynamics was first published in 1992, with a second edition in 1994 and now a third one at the end of 2002. … I have used the former edition(s) of this particular volume in a course on QED and it is a very good source to find all the details. … The books of Greiner … have owned their specific place in the literature on theoretical physics and this volume fits fully in that scheme." (Kris Heyde, Physicalia, Vol. 25 (4), 2003)

• Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

  Walter Greiner

• Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

  Joachim Reinhardt

Policies and ethics