Infraparticle quantum fields and the formation of photon clouds

Abstract

A non-perturbative and exactly solvable quantum field theoretical model for a "dressed Dirac field" is presented, that exhibits all the kinematical features of QED: an appropriate delocalization of the charged field as a prerequisite for the global Gauss Law, superselected photon clouds (asymptotic expectation values of the Maxwell field), infraparticle nature of charged particles that cannot be separated from their photon clouds, broken Lorentz symmetry. The model serves as an intermediate leg on a new roadmap towards full QED, formulated as an off-shell theory, i.e., including a perturbative construction of its interacting charged fields. It also fills a gap in recent discussions of the "Infrared Triangle", and points the way towards a new scattering theory for theories with massless particles of helicity $\ge 1$, in which infraparticles can be described at the level of charged fields, rather than just states.

v1: 58 pages, 2 figures. v2: presentation improved and extended (notably Sect. 4), references added

References in corpus (9)

• Infrared quantum information
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• How the Higgs potential got its shape
• Revisiting the Okubo-Marshak argument
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Notes on QED Corrections in Weak Decays
• Null Hamiltonian Yang-Mills theory: Soft symmetries and memory as superselection
• The universal algebra of the electromagnetic field III. Static charges and emergence of gauge fields
• On the spacetime structure of infrared divergencies in QED
• Quantum general covariance
• sQFT: an autonomous explanation of the interactions of quantum particles
• The full electroweak interaction: an autonomous account
• Geometric confinement in gauge theories
• Dressed fields for Quantum Chromodynamics