Quantum Electrodynamics

Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt3540875603, 9783540875604

This textbook on Quantum Electrodynamics is a thorough introductory text providing all necessary mathematical tools together with many examples and worked problems. In their presentation of the subject the authors adopt a heuristic approach based on the propagator formalism. The latter is introduced in the first two chapters in both its nonrelativistic and relativistic versions. Subsequently, a large number of scattering and radiation processes involving electrons, positrons, and photons are introduced and their theoretical treatment is presented in great detail. Higher order processes and renormalization are also included. The book concludes with a discussion of two-particle states and the interaction of spinless bosons. This completely revised and corrected new edition provides several additions to enable deeper insight in formalism and application of quantum electrodynamics.

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Table of contents :
Cover
……Page 1
Foreword to Earlier Series Editions……Page 7
Preface to the Fourth Edition……Page 9
Preface to the Third Edition……Page 10
Preface to the Second Edition……Page 11
Preface to the First Edition……Page 12
Contents……Page 15
Contents of Examples and Exercises……Page 17
Introduction……Page 19
The Nonrelativistic Propagator……Page 20
Green’s Function and Propagator……Page 21
An Integral Equation for psi……Page 24
Application to Scattering Problems……Page 30
The Unitarity of the S Matrix……Page 38
Symmetry Properties of the S Matrix……Page 39
The Green’s Function in Momentum Representation……Page 41
Another Look at the Green’s Function……Page 47
Biographical Notes……Page 56
The Propagators for Electrons and Positrons……Page 57
Coulomb Scattering of Electrons……Page 95
Scattering of an Electron off a Free Proton: The Effect of Recoil……Page 114
Scattering of Identical Fermions……Page 149
Electron-Positron Scattering……Page 157
Scattering of Polarized Dirac Particles……Page 168
Bremsstrahlung……Page 175
Compton Scattering – The Klein-Nishina Formula……Page 195
Annihilation of Particle and Antiparticle……Page 208
Biographical Notes……Page 257
Summary: The Feynman Rules of QED……Page 261
The Feynman Rules of QED in Momentum Space……Page 262
The Photon Propagator in Different Gauges……Page 266
Biographical Notes……Page 271
Electron-Positron Scattering in Fourth Order……Page 273
Vacuum Polarization……Page 275
Self-Energy of the Electron……Page 309
The Vertex Correction……Page 316
Biographical Notes……Page 345
The Bethe-Salpeter Equation……Page 347
Biographical Notes……Page 377
Quantum Electrodynamics of Strong Fields……Page 379
Strong Fields in Atoms……Page 382
Strong Fields in Heavy Ion Collisions……Page 410
The Effective Lagrangian of the Electromagnetic Field……Page 420
Biographical Notes……Page 442
Quantum Electrodynamics of Spinless Bosons……Page 443
The Klein-Gordon Equation……Page 444
The Feynman Propagator for Scalar Particles……Page 445
The Scattering of Spin-0 Bosons……Page 447
The Feynman Rules of Scalar Electrodynamics……Page 452
Appendix……Page 459
Subject Index……Page 461