Two-photon exchange force in scalar quantum electrodynamics: The asymptotic story

The dependence of the potential V2γ arising from two-photon exchange between charged spinless systems on the one-photon exchange potential V1γ is examined. It is found that, unlike the case when at least one of the two systems is neutral, the form of V1γ can play a key role in determining the large-r behavior of V2γ. It is shown that if V1γ is defined in a way inspired by the use of the Coulomb gauge rather than the Feynman gauge, V2γ falls off as r-3, rather than as r-2. This result, which removes an apparent cognitive dissonance with the related work of Spruch, does not mean that the effective potential is inherently gauge dependent. Instead it highlights the fact that in this case the concept of the asymptotic behavior of V2γ is not as sharp as one might have thought. The relation of this result to an analogous one expected to hold for spinor QED and to the nonrelativistic form of the orbit-orbit interaction is also discussed