English

On the relativistic quantum mechanics of a photon between two electrons in 1+1 dimensions

Mathematical Physics 2024-11-13 v2 Analysis of PDEs math.MP Quantum Physics

Abstract

A Lorentz-covariant system of wave equations is formulated for a quantum-mechanical three-body system in one space dimension, comprised of one photon and two identical massive spin one-half Dirac particles, which can be thought of as two electrons (or alternatively, two positrons). Manifest covariance is achieved using Dirac's formalism of multi-time wave functions, i.e, wave functions Ψ(xph,xe1,xe2)\Psi(\textbf{x}_{\text{ph}},\textbf{x}_{\text{e}_1},\textbf{x}_{\text{e}_2}) where xph,xe1,xe2\textbf{x}_{\text{ph}},\textbf{x}_{\text{e}_1},\textbf{x}_{\text{e}_2} are generic spacetime events of the photon and two electrons respectively. Their interaction is implemented via a Lorentz-invariant no-crossing-of-paths boundary condition at the coincidence submanifolds {xph=xe1}\{\textbf{x}_{\text{ph}}=\textbf{x}_{\text{e}_1}\} and {xph=xe2}\{\textbf{x}_{\text{ph}}=\textbf{x}_{\text{e}_2}\} compatible with conservation of probability current. The corresponding initial-boundary value problem is shown to be well-posed, and it is shown that the unique solution can be represented by a convergent infinite sum of Feynman-like diagrams, each one corresponding to the photon bouncing between the two electrons a fixed number of times.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2312.06019,
  title  = {On the relativistic quantum mechanics of a photon between two electrons in 1+1 dimensions},
  author = {Lawrence Frolov and Samuel E. Leigh and A. Shadi Tahvildar-Zadeh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.06019},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

27 pages, 10 figures