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Probing the Quantum Vacuum

Perturbative Effective Action Approach in Quantum Electrodynamics and its Application

  • Book
  • © 2000

Overview

Authors:
  1. Walter Dittrich

    1. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

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  2. Holger Gies

    1. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Up-to-date overview of the physical vacuum properties of quantum electrodynamics
  • Important topic in theoretical physics of elementary particles
  • Access to recent literature
  • Available online in LINK http://link.springer.de/series/stmp/
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Springer Tracts in Modern Physics (STMP, volume 166)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XI
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  2. Introduction

    Pages 1-2

  3. Nonlinear Electrodynamics: Quantum Theory

    Pages 3-60

  4. Nonlinear Electrodynamics: Effective-Action Approach

    Pages 61-154

  5. QED in Two Spatial Dimensions

    Pages 155-180

  6. Scattering of Light by Light

    Pages 181-189

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 191-241
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Keywords

About this book

This book is devoted to an investigation of the vacuum of quantum elec trodynamics (QED), relying on the perturbative effective action approach. If the vacuum is probed with external perturbations, the response of the system can be analyzed after averaging over the high energy degrees of freedom. This results in an effective description of the properties of the vacuum, which are comparable to the properties of a classical medium. We concentrate primarily on the physics of slowly varying fields or soft photons by integrating out the high energy degrees of freedom, i.e. the elec trons, employing Schwinger's proper time method. We derive a new represen tation of the one loop photon polarization tensor, coupling to all orders to an arbitrary constant electromagnetic field, fully maintaining the dependence on the complete set of invariants. On the basis of effective Lagrangians, we derive the light cone condition for low frequency photons propagating in strong fields. Our formalism can be extended to various external perturbations, such as temperature and Casimir situations. We give a proof of the "unified formula" for low energy phenom ena that describes the refractive indices of various perturbed quantum vacua. In the high energy domain, we observe similarities between a vacuum with a superstrong magnetic field and a magnetized plasma. The question of mea surability of the various effects is addressed; a violation of causality is not found.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

    Walter Dittrich, Holger Gies

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Probing the Quantum Vacuum

  • Book Subtitle: Perturbative Effective Action Approach in Quantum Electrodynamics and its Application

  • Authors: Walter Dittrich, Holger Gies

  • Series Title: Springer Tracts in Modern Physics

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45585-X

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2000

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-540-67428-3Published: 14 July 2000

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-08686-1Published: 08 December 2010

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-540-45585-1Published: 01 July 2003

  • Series ISSN: 0081-3869

  • Series E-ISSN: 1615-0430

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 244

  • Topics: Quantum Physics, Particle and Nuclear Physics

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