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Reverse Engineering Approach to Quantum Electrodynamics

General Physics 2016-02-10 v8

Abstract

The S matrix of e--e scattering has the structure of a projection operator that projects incoming separable product states onto entangled two-electron states. In this projection operator the empirical value of the fine-structure constant alpha acts as a normalization factor. When the structure of the two-particle state space is known, a theoretical value of the normalization factor can be calculated. For an irreducible two-particle representation of the Poincare group, the calculated normalization factor matches Wyler's semi-empirical formula for the fine-structure constant alpha. The empirical value of alpha, therefore, provides experimental evidence that the state space of two interacting electrons belongs to an irreducible two-particle representation of the Poincare group.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1004.0820,
  title  = {Reverse Engineering Approach to Quantum Electrodynamics},
  author = {Walter Smilga},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.0820},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

12 pages, minor changes

R2 v1 2026-06-21T15:06:55.726Z