Published June 2015 | Version v1
Journal article

Finite field-energy of a point charge in QED

  • 1. Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, Caixa Postal 66318, CEP 05508-090, São Paulo, S. P. (Brazil)
  • 2. P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Leninsky Prospekt 53, Moscow 117924 (Russian Federation)

Description

We consider a simple nonlinear (quartic in the fields) gauge-invariant modification of classical electrodynamics, to show that it possesses a regularizing ability sufficient to make the field energy of a point charge finite. The model is exactly solved in the class of static central-symmetric electric fields. Collation with quantum electrodynamics (QED) results in the total field energy of a point elementary charge about twice the electron mass. The proof of the finiteness of the field energy is extended to include any polynomial selfinteraction, thereby the one that stems from the truncated expansion of the Euler–Heisenberg local Lagrangian in QED in powers of the field strength. (paper)

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0031-8949/90/7/074012

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physica Scripta (Online)
Journal Volume
90
Journal Issue
7
Journal Page Range
[6 p.]
ISSN
1402-4896