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.
Author(s): Walter Greiner, Joachim Reinhardt
Edition: 4th ed.
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 461
Cover......Page 1
front-matter......Page 2
Foreword to Earlier Series Editions......Page 6
Preface to the Fourth Edition......Page 8
Preface to the Third Edition......Page 9
Preface to the Second Edition......Page 10
Preface to the First Edition......Page 11
Contents......Page 14
Contents of Examples and Exercises......Page 16
Introduction......Page 18
The Nonrelativistic Propagator......Page 19
Green's Function and Propagator......Page 20
An Integral Equation for psi......Page 23
Application to Scattering Problems......Page 29
The Unitarity of the S Matrix......Page 37
Symmetry Properties of the S Matrix......Page 38
The Green's Function in Momentum Representation......Page 40
Another Look at the Green's Function......Page 46
Biographical Notes......Page 55
The Propagators for Electrons and Positrons......Page 56
Coulomb Scattering of Electrons......Page 94
Scattering of an Electron off a Free Proton: The Effect of Recoil......Page 113
Scattering of Identical Fermions......Page 148
Electron-Positron Scattering......Page 156
Scattering of Polarized Dirac Particles......Page 167
Bremsstrahlung......Page 174
Compton Scattering - The Klein-Nishina Formula......Page 194
Annihilation of Particle and Antiparticle......Page 207
Biographical Notes......Page 256
Summary: The Feynman Rules of QED......Page 259
The Feynman Rules of QED in Momentum Space......Page 260
The Photon Propagator in Different Gauges......Page 264
Biographical Notes......Page 269
Electron-Positron Scattering in Fourth Order......Page 270
Vacuum Polarization......Page 272
Self-Energy of the Electron......Page 306
The Vertex Correction......Page 313
Biographical Notes......Page 342
The Bethe-Salpeter Equation......Page 344
Biographical Notes......Page 374
Quantum Electrodynamics of Strong Fields......Page 375
Strong Fields in Atoms......Page 378
Strong Fields in Heavy Ion Collisions......Page 406
The Effective Lagrangian of the Electromagnetic Field......Page 416
Biographical Notes......Page 438
Quantum Electrodynamics of Spinless Bosons......Page 439
The Klein-Gordon Equation......Page 440
The Feynman Propagator for Scalar Particles......Page 441
The Scattering of Spin-0 Bosons......Page 443
The Feynman Rules of Scalar Electrodynamics......Page 448
Appendix......Page 455
Subject Index......Page 457
