LIGHT AND MATTER A VERY

BRIEF HISTORY
TOM HEINZL
UME UNIVERSITY
22 SEPTEMBER 2010

Typical Procedure for the Oral Defence of

Doctoral Dissertations at Swedish Universities
Formal dress is not used
presenting the topic of the thesis
the audience is of a very mixed background.

Topic of the thesis

QED
and Collective Effects in Vacuum and Plasmas

Topic of this talk

QED
the strange theory of light and matter

Outline
1.
2.
3.

Light
Matter
Light & Matter

1. Light

Brief history of light

1704

Isaac Newton: Opticks

Light=Particles

1861
1873

James Clerk Maxwell:

Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
Light=Waves

1905

Albert Einstein: annus mirabilis papers

Light=Particles (photons)
Particle wave duality
quantum mechanics

Wikipedia

Maxwells theory (modern version)

Combine electric field E and magnetic field B into

field strength F, form action S[F]
Action principle S = 0 yields Maxwells eq.s
External current

Defining vector potential F = dA yields wave eq.

c = speed of light light = electromagnetic wave

Einstein

1905 paper I

1905 paper II

On

On

= limiting velocity

Maxwells theory is
genuinely relativistic

the electrodynamics
of moving bodies

c

a heuristic aspect
concerning the creation and
transformation of light

Light = quanta of energy

= Plancks constant
= quantum of action
= 1.054 10-34 Js

Nobel Prize 1921

2. Matter

What is matter?

Choose theoretical
description accordingly

1m
10-9 m

Increasing resolution

Answer depends on
power of your
microscope or
Spatial resolution R or
Typical length scale R

10-10 m

10-15 m

10-18 m
Source: DESY

Matter - a matter of resolution

Macroscopic matter

Described

by Newtons law,

From action principle,

Microscopic matter

Requires

quantum description whenever action product

, i.e. resolution

Examples:
 Apples
 Atoms

Brief history of QM
1913

Bohrs model of the atom

(Nobel prize 1922)

1923

Louis de Broglie
Particles=Waves:
(Nobel prize 1929)

1925
1926

Heisenbergs matrices
Schrdingers wave eq.
(Nobel prizes 1932/33)
Wikipedia

Particle wave duality

Quantum particles = matter waves (similar to light)

Shooting single electrons through a slit:

Obtain wavy interference pattern!

Discussion

Upon increasing resolution/energy:

Classical
Relativistic and Quantum aspects
Wish list:

RQ

description for light coupled to matter (unification)

based on action principle (mathematical beauty)

valid for resolution
Compton wavelength

RQ mechanics does not work due to

(Dirac, 1930)

Way out: QED!

production

3. Light & Matter

or QED

QED who made it?

Faber & Faber

isbnlib.com

QED: Ingredients

Action:

basic Feynman rules

Coupling strength in
: elementary charge or
Fine structure constant

Quantum action principle

In quantum theory basic quantities are probability

amplitudes for transitions between states:
Quantum actionprinciple (Schwinger 1951)

Solution: path integral (cf. JL, Ch. 2)

=

sum over histories,

= sum over all paths weighted by

is classical action
NB: no EoM !

QED: elementary processes

Transition amplitudes built from basic Feynman rules

Tree diagrams
Typically finite

Loop diagrams
Typically infinite

Example: Vacuum polarisation

Photon fluctuates spontaneously into virtual

dipoles of electron-positron pairs
Consequence: vacuum behaves like a screening
dielectric medium
Long-distance charge shielding due to (virtual)
polarisation cloud
= charge renormalisation

Charge renormalisation contd

Illustration: screening of bare (

) electron

The further one moves away

from the bare electron the
smaller appears its charge
Thus, in QED: charge
decreases with distance

running coupling:

Spatial resolution

Quantum action I

Q: Is there quantumaction principle leading to

quantum EoM?
A: Yes define quantum (effective) action
Quantum EoM:
Tree level for = all loop orders for S
has expansion in powers of fields
For strong fields may require all orders!
(cf. JL, Ch. 4)

Quantum action II

Each blob has simultaneous expansion in

loops

(powers of )

derivatives (powers of momentum/frequency)

More and more blobs required the stronger the

fields: new regime, accessible by high-power lasers
(ultra-intense light)

Happy birthday!

JLs action

Expansions: 1-loop + derivative

=

+
(0)

+
(2)
+

=
Maxwell

LO VacPol

+
(0)
LO Heisenberg-Euler

JLs applications

Ch.3: Light-by-light scattering

(with high-power lasers)
Ch. 4: Dispersive effects
= Heisenberg-Euler to all orders

Ch.5: QED plasmas

+

Thank you very much...

for your attention!
Over to Joakim

Appendix
g-2

Example: Vertex correction

Schwinger 1948
Loop diagram (after renormalisation):

Significance: LO contribution to anomalous magnetic

moment of electron (deviation from Dirac value
g=2)

NLO

NNLO

QED success story g 2

Plus 891 4-loop diagrams

Deviation from Dirac value 2 known to NNNLO

Numerical values:

(Th: Kinoshita et al., 2008)

(Exp: Gabrielse et al., 2008)

light-by-light contribution
NNLO light-by-light scattering contributions to g-2