paper

The 1-loop self-energy of an electron in a strong external magnetic field revisited

arXiv:1510.03244 · doi:10.1142/S0217751X16500718

Abstract

I calculate the 1-loop self-energy of the lowest Landau level an electron of mass m in a strong, constant and uniform external magnetic field B, beyond its always used truncation at (ln L)^2, L=|e|B/m^2. This is achieved by evaluating the integral deduced in 1953 by Demeur and incompletely calculated in 1969 by Jancovici, which I recover from Schwinger's techniques of calculation. It yields δm \simeq (α*m/(4*π))*[(\ln L -γ_E -3/2)^2 -9/4 +π/(β-1) + π^2/6 +π*Γ[1-β]/L^{β-1} +(1/L)*(π/(2-β)-5) +{\cal O}(1/L^{>= 2})] with β\approx 1.175 for 75 =< L =< 10000. . The (\ln L)^2 truncation exceeds the precise estimate by 45% at L=100 and by more at lower values of L, due to neglecting, among others, the single logarithmic contribution. This is doubly unjustified because it is large and because it is needed to fulfill appropriate renormalization conditions. Technically challenging improvements look therefore necessary, for example when resumming higher loops and incorporating the effects of large B on the photonic vacuum polarization, like investigated in recent years.

15 pages, 7 figures. Revised version, more self-contained. To appear in IJMP A

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