Infrared divergences in QED revisited

Kapec, Daniel; Perry, Malcolm; Raclariu, Ana-Maria; Strominger, Andrew

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.96.085002

Title: Infrared divergences in QED revisited

Abstract

Recently it has been demonstrated that the vacuum state in QED is infinitely degenerate. Moreover a transition among the degenerate vacua is induced in any nontrivial scattering process and determined from the associated soft factor. Conventional computations of scattering amplitudes in QED do not account for this vacuum degeneracy and therefore always give zero. This vanishing of all conventional QED amplitudes is usually attributed to infrared divergences. In this work, we show that if these vacuum transitions are properly accounted for, the resulting amplitudes are nonzero and infrared finite. Our construction of finite amplitudes is mathematically equivalent to, and amounts to a physical reinterpretation of, the 1970 construction of Faddeev and Kulish.

Authors:

Kapec, Daniel ^[1]; Perry, Malcolm ^[2]; Raclariu, Ana-Maria ^[1]; Strominger, Andrew ^[1]

Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature
Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Dept. of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

Publication Date:: Tue Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:: Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)

OSTI Identifier:: 1598788

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1398824

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0007870

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Physical Review D

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 96; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats


                    Kapec, Daniel, Perry, Malcolm, Raclariu, Ana-Maria, and Strominger, Andrew. Infrared divergences in QED revisited.  United States: N. p., 2017. 
Web.  doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.96.085002.

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                    Kapec, Daniel, Perry, Malcolm, Raclariu, Ana-Maria, & Strominger, Andrew. Infrared divergences in QED revisited.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.085002

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                    Kapec, Daniel, Perry, Malcolm, Raclariu, Ana-Maria, and Strominger, Andrew. Tue .  
"Infrared divergences in QED revisited".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.085002.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1598788.

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@article{osti_1598788,

  title        = {Infrared divergences in QED revisited},

  author       = {Kapec, Daniel and Perry, Malcolm and Raclariu, Ana-Maria and Strominger, Andrew},

  abstractNote = {Recently it has been demonstrated that the vacuum state in QED is infinitely degenerate. Moreover a transition among the degenerate vacua is induced in any nontrivial scattering process and determined from the associated soft factor. Conventional computations of scattering amplitudes in QED do not account for this vacuum degeneracy and therefore always give zero. This vanishing of all conventional QED amplitudes is usually attributed to infrared divergences. In this work, we show that if these vacuum transitions are properly accounted for, the resulting amplitudes are nonzero and infrared finite. Our construction of finite amplitudes is mathematically equivalent to, and amounts to a physical reinterpretation of, the 1970 construction of Faddeev and Kulish.},

  doi          = {10.1103/PhysRevD.96.085002},

  journal      = {Physical Review D},

  number       = 8,

  volume       = 96,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2017},

  month        = {Tue Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2017}

}

Copy to clipboard

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Scalar asymptotic charges and dual large gauge transformations
journal, April 2019

Campiglia, Miguel; Freidel, Laurent; Hopfmueller, Florian
Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2019, Issue 4
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Infrared problem in quantum acoustodynamics at finite temperature
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Localisation of soft charges, and thermodynamics of softly hairy black holes
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Infrared divergences and quantum coherence
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Back-reaction on background fields: a coherent state approach
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Infrared problem in quantum acoustodynamics at finite temperature
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Localisation of Soft Charges, and Thermodynamics of Softly Hairy Black Holes
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Similar Records

Title: Infrared divergences in QED revisited

Abstract

Citation Formats

Gauge-Invariant Formulation of Quantum Electrodynamics journal, November 1955

Asymptotic conditions and infrared divergences in quantum electrodynamics journal, January 1971

Asymptotic symmetries of QED and Weinberg’s soft photon theorem journal, July 2015

2D Kac-Moody symmetry of 4D Yang-Mills theory journal, October 2016

Coherent Soft-Photon States and Infrared Divergences. II. Mass-Shell Singularities of Green's Functions journal, September 1968

Asymptotic symmetries of Yang-Mills theory journal, July 2014

Coherent Soft-Photon States and Infrared Divergences. IV. The Scattering Operator journal, November 1968

Dressed Hard States and Black Hole Soft Hair journal, November 2016

An electromagnetic analogue of gravitational wave memory journal, September 2013

Asymptotic Conditions and Infrared Divergences in Quantum Electrodynamics book, February 2016

Mass Singularities of Feynman Amplitudes journal, July 1962

Degenerate Systems and Mass Singularities journal, March 1964

On the influence of radiative forces on the scattering of electrons journal, April 1931

Note on the Radiation Field of the Electron journal, July 1937

Coherent Soft-Photon States and Infrared Divergences. III. Asymptotic States and Reduction Formulas journal, October 1968

Large gauge symmetries and asymptotic states in QED journal, December 2016

New symmetries of massless QED journal, October 2014

Infrared Photons and Gravitons journal, October 1965

Infrared Divergence in Quantum Electrodynamics journal, November 1965

The infrared divergence phenomena and high-energy processes journal, June 1961

Null to time-like infinity Green’s functions for asymptotic symmetries in Minkowski spacetime journal, November 2015

A note on asymptotic symmetries and soft-photon theorem journal, February 2015

2D Kac-Moody symmetry of 4D Yang-Mills theory text, January 2016

Asymptotic Symmetries of Yang-Mills Theory text, January 2013

A note on asymptotic symmetries and soft-photon theorem text, January 2014

2D Kac-Moody Symmetry of 4D Yang-Mills Theory text, January 2015

Null to time-like infinity Green's functions for asymptotic symmetries in Minkowski spacetime text, January 2015

Scalar asymptotic charges and dual large gauge transformations journal, April 2019

Note on soft photons and Faddeev–Jackiw symplectic reduction of quantum electrodynamics in the eikonal limit journal, September 2018

Electromagnetic duality and central charge journal, December 2018

Infrared problem in quantum acoustodynamics at finite temperature journal, December 2017

Localisation of soft charges, and thermodynamics of softly hairy black holes journal, July 2018

Infrared divergences and quantum coherence journal, July 2018

Soft Factorization in QED from 2D Kac-Moody Symmetry text, January 2017

Asymptotic Dynamics in Perturbative Quantum Gravity and BMS Supertranslations text, January 2017

Back-reaction on background fields: a coherent state approach text, January 2017

Infrared problem in quantum acoustodynamics at finite temperature text, January 2017

Localisation of Soft Charges, and Thermodynamics of Softly Hairy Black Holes text, January 2018

Note on soft photons and Faddeev-Jackiw symplectic reduction of quantum electrodynamics in the eikonal limit text, January 2018

Scalar Asymptotic Charges and Dual Large Gauge Transformations text, January 2018

The Asymptotic Behavior of Massless Fields and the Memory Effect text, January 2019

Gauge-Invariant Formulation of Quantum Electrodynamics
journal, November 1955

Asymptotic conditions and infrared divergences in quantum electrodynamics
journal, January 1971

Asymptotic symmetries of QED and Weinberg’s soft photon theorem
journal, July 2015

2D Kac-Moody symmetry of 4D Yang-Mills theory
journal, October 2016

Coherent Soft-Photon States and Infrared Divergences. II. Mass-Shell Singularities of Green's Functions
journal, September 1968

Asymptotic symmetries of Yang-Mills theory
journal, July 2014

Coherent Soft-Photon States and Infrared Divergences. IV. The Scattering Operator
journal, November 1968

Dressed Hard States and Black Hole Soft Hair
journal, November 2016

An electromagnetic analogue of gravitational wave memory
journal, September 2013

Asymptotic Conditions and Infrared Divergences in Quantum Electrodynamics
book, February 2016

Mass Singularities of Feynman Amplitudes
journal, July 1962

Degenerate Systems and Mass Singularities
journal, March 1964

On the influence of radiative forces on the scattering of electrons
journal, April 1931

Note on the Radiation Field of the Electron
journal, July 1937

Coherent Soft-Photon States and Infrared Divergences. III. Asymptotic States and Reduction Formulas
journal, October 1968

Large gauge symmetries and asymptotic states in QED
journal, December 2016

New symmetries of massless QED
journal, October 2014

Infrared Photons and Gravitons
journal, October 1965

Infrared Divergence in Quantum Electrodynamics
journal, November 1965

The infrared divergence phenomena and high-energy processes
journal, June 1961

Null to time-like infinity Green’s functions for asymptotic symmetries in Minkowski spacetime
journal, November 2015

A note on asymptotic symmetries and soft-photon theorem
journal, February 2015

2D Kac-Moody symmetry of 4D Yang-Mills theory
text, January 2016

Asymptotic Symmetries of Yang-Mills Theory
text, January 2013

A note on asymptotic symmetries and soft-photon theorem
text, January 2014

2D Kac-Moody Symmetry of 4D Yang-Mills Theory
text, January 2015

Null to time-like infinity Green's functions for asymptotic symmetries in Minkowski spacetime
text, January 2015

Scalar asymptotic charges and dual large gauge transformations
journal, April 2019

Note on soft photons and Faddeev–Jackiw symplectic reduction of quantum electrodynamics in the eikonal limit
journal, September 2018

Electromagnetic duality and central charge
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Infrared problem in quantum acoustodynamics at finite temperature
journal, December 2017

Localisation of soft charges, and thermodynamics of softly hairy black holes
journal, July 2018

Infrared divergences and quantum coherence
journal, July 2018

Soft Factorization in QED from 2D Kac-Moody Symmetry
text, January 2017

Asymptotic Dynamics in Perturbative Quantum Gravity and BMS Supertranslations
text, January 2017

Back-reaction on background fields: a coherent state approach
text, January 2017

Infrared problem in quantum acoustodynamics at finite temperature
text, January 2017

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text, January 2018

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