English

Electromagnetic fields of a massless particle and the eikonal

High Energy Physics - Theory 2016-04-20 v2

Abstract

Electromagnetic fields of a massless charged particle are described by a gauge potential that is almost everywhere pure gauge. Solution of quantum mechanical wave equations in the presence of such fields is therefore immediate and leads to a new derivation of the quantum electrodynamical eikonal approximation. The elctromagnetic action in the eikonal limit is localised on a contour in a two-dimensional Minkowski subspace of four-dimensional space-time. The exact S-matrix of this reduced theory coincides with the eikonal approximation, and represents the generalisatin to electrodynamics of the approach of 't Hooft and the Verlinde's to Planckian scattering.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9112020,
  title  = {Electromagnetic fields of a massless particle and the eikonal},
  author = {Roman Jackiw and Dan Kabat and Miguel Ortiz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9112020},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

The missing overdot -- signifying the $\tau$ differentiation $\nabla^2 {\dot \Omega}^{+ -} and {\dot k}^{+-}$ in eqs. (23) and (24) -- is inserted. Also, obsolete macro has been fixed. Plain TeX, 13 pages