Non-Equilibrium Quantum Electrodynamics
High Energy Physics - Theory
2009-10-30 v2 Quantum Physics
Abstract
We employ the influence functional technique to trace out the photonic contribution from full quantum electrodynamics. The reduced density matrix propagator for the spinor field is then constructed. We discuss the role of time-dependent renormalization in the propagator and focus on the possibility of obtaining dynamically induced superselection rules. Finally, we derive the master equation for the case of the field being in an one-particle state in a non-relativistic regime and discuss whether EM vacuumm fluctuations are sufficient to produce decoherence in the position basis.
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/9709223,
title = {Non-Equilibrium Quantum Electrodynamics},
author = {C. Anastopoulos and A. Zoupas},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9709223},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
28 pages, 2 figures. Substantially revised, one important mistake corrected; discussion on decoherence upgraded, section 4 essentially rewritten