An effective action approach to photon propagation on a magnetized background

A new explicit analytical form of the dispersion relation for photon propagation in the presence of a strong background magnetic field is derived within the effective action framework. The dispersion relation is expressed in terms of well-known special functions, and the treatment is exact within the linearization procedure, the one-loop approximation, and the soft photon approximation. The results are incorporated in a kinetic spin plasma description for the purpose of studying quantum electrodynamical effects of strongly magnetized plasmas. The results are applied to astrophysical examples. (author)