We discuss recent results concerning the ground state of non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics as a function of a magnetic coupling constant or the fine structure constant, obtained by the authors in [12,13,14].
We consider resonances in the Pauli-Fierz model of non-relativistic QED. We use and slightly modify the analysis developed by Bach, Froehlich, and Sigal to obtain an upper and lower bound on the lifetime of quasi-stationary states.
We consider a class of translation invariant models of non-relativistic QED with net charge. Under certain natural assumptions we prove that ground states do not exist in the Fock space.
We examine the binding conditions for atoms in non-relativistic QED, and prove that removing one electron from an atom requires a positive energy. As an application, we establish the existence of a ground state for the Helium atom.
We construct infraparticle scattering states for Compton scattering in the standard model of non-relativistic QED. In our construction, an infrared cutoff initially introduced to regularize the model is removed completely. We rigorously establish the properties of infraparticle scattering theory predicted in the classic work of Bloch and Nordsieck from the 1930's, Faddeev and Kulish, and others. Our results represent a basic step towards solving the infrared problem in (non-relativistic) QED.
The hydrogen binding energy in the Pauli-Fierz model with the spin Zeeman term is determined up to the order alpha cube, where alpha denotes the fine-structure constant.
We study the mathematical theory of quantum resonances in the standard model of non-relativistic QED and in Nelson's model. In particular, we estimate the survival probability of metastable states corresponding to quantum resonances and relate the resonances to poles of an analytic continuation of matrix elements of the resolvent of the quantum Hamiltonian.
We study the infrared problem in the usual model of QED with non-relativistic matter. We prove spectral and regularity properties characterizing the mass shell of an electron and one-electron infraparticle states of this model. Our results are crucial for the construction of infraparticle scattering states, which are treated in a separate paper.
We consider a spinless particle coupled to a quantized Bose field and show that such a system has a ground state for two classes of short-range potentials which are alone too weak to have a zero-energy resonance.
We consider a spin-1/2 electron and a spin-1/2 nucleus interacting with the quantized electromagnetic field in the standard model of non-relativistic QED. For a fixed total momentum sufficiently small, we study the multiplicity of the ground state of the reduced Hamiltonian. We prove that the coupling between the spins of the charged particles and the electromagnetic field splits the degeneracy of the ground state.
We prove the limiting absorption principle for a dressed electron at a fixed total momentum in the standard model of non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics. Our proof is based on an application of the smooth Feshbach-Schur map in conjunction with Mourre's theory.
In this article an hierarchy of terms in the expansion of the multipolar Hamiltonian for non relativistic moving atoms in QED is considered. The particular case of neutral composite systems of 2,3 and 4 particles is considered. The proposed hierarchy is based on a scaling analysis of the multipolar Hamiltonian together with a multipolar expansion of the coupling terms. We give explicit results up to the fourth order in the fine structure constant.
This paper is devoted to the scattering of photons at electrons in models of non-relativistic quantum mechanical particles coupled minimally to the soft modes of the quantized electromagnetic field. We prove existence of scattering states involving an arbitrary number of asymptotic photons of arbitrarily high energy. Previously, upper bounds on the photon energies seemed necessary in the case of $n>1$ asymptotic photons and non-confined, non-relativistic charged particles.
We prove existence of a ground state and resonances in the standard model of the non-relativistic quantum electro-dynamics (QED). To this end we introduce a new canonical transformation of QED Hamiltonians and use the spectral renormalization group technique with a new choice of Banach spaces.
We consider a spinless particle coupled to a photon field and prove that even if the Schrödinger operator $p^2 + V$ does not have eigenvalues the system can have a ground state. We describe the coupling by means of the Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonian and our result holds in the case where the coupling constant $α$ is small.
In the framework of non-relativistic QED, we show that the renormalized mass of the electron (after having taken into account radiative corrections) appears as the kinematic mass in its response to an external potential force. Specifically, we study the dynamics of an electron in a slowly varying external potential and with slowly varying initial conditions and prove that, for a long time, it is accurately described by an associated effective dynamics of a Schrödinger electron in the same external potential and for the same initial data, with a kinetic energy operator determined by the renorma…
We consider a hydrogen-like atom in a quantized electromagnetic field which is modeled by means of the semi-relativistic Pauli-Fierz operator and prove that the infimum of the spectrum of the latter operator is an eigenvalue. In particular, we verify that the bottom of its spectrum is strictly less than its ionization threshold. These results hold true for arbitrary values of the fine-structure constant and the ultra-violet cut-off as long as the Coulomb coupling constant (i.e. the product of the fine-structure constant and the nuclear charge) is less than 2/π.
We derive the ground state energy up to the fourth order in the fine structure constant $α$ for the translation invariant Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonian for a spinless electron coupled to the quantized radiation field. As a consequence, we obtain the non-analyticity of the ground state energy of the Pauli-Fierz operator for a single particle in the Coulomb field of a nucleus.
In this paper we present a mathematical analysis of the photoelectric effect for one-electron atoms in the framework of non-relativistic QED. We treat photo-ionization as a scattering process where in the remote past an atom in its ground state is targeted by one or several photons, while in the distant future the atom is ionized and the electron escapes to spacial infinity. Our main result shows that the ionization probability, to leading order in the fine-structure constant, $α$, is correctly given by formal time-dependent perturbation theory, and, moreover, that the dipole approximation pro…
We consider a Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonian for a particle coupled to a photon field. We discuss the effects of the increase of the binding energy and enhanced binding through coupling to a photon field, and prove that both effects are the results of the existence of the ground state of the self-energy operator with total momentum $P = 0$.
We consider the ground state of an atom in the framework of non-relativistic qed. We show that the ground state as well as the ground state energy are analytic functions of the coupling constant which couples to the vector potential, under the assumption that the atomic Hamiltonian has a non-degenerate ground state. Moreover, we show that the corresponding expansion coefficients are precisely the coefficients of the associated Raleigh-Schroedinger series. As a corollary we obtain that in a scaling limit where the ultraviolet cutoff is of the order of the Rydberg energy the ground state and the…
We consider dressed 1-electron states in a translation-invariant model of non-relativistic QED. To start with a well-defined model, the interaction Hamiltonian is cutoff at very large photon energies (ultraviolet cutoff) and regularized at very small photon energies (infrared regularization). The infrared regularization is then removed, and the representations of the canonical commutation relations of the electromagnetic field operators determined by the dressed 1-electron states are studied using operator-algebra methods. A key ingredient in our analysis is a bound on the renormalized electro…
We investigate the self-energy of one electron coupled to a quantized radiation field by extending the ideas developed recently by C. Hainzl. We fix an arbitrary cut-off parameter Lambda and recover the alpha^2-term of the self-energy, where alpha is the coupling parameter representing the fine structure constant. Thereby we develop a method which allows to expand the self-energy up to any power of alpha. This implies that perturbation theory is correct if Lambda is fix. As an immediate consequence we obtain enhanced binding for electrons.
We consider scattering of a single photon by an atom or a molecule in the framework of non relativistic qed, and we express the scattering matrix for one photon scattering as a boundary value of the resolvent.
We consider a free hydrogen atom composed of a spin-1/2 nucleus and a spin-1/2 electron in the standard model of non-relativistic QED. We study the Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonian associated with this system at a fixed total momentum. For small enough values of the fine-structure constant, we prove that the ground state is unique. This result reflects the hyperfine structure of the hydrogen atom ground state.
In this paper, we determine the exact expression for the hydrogen binding energy in the Pauli-Fierz model up to the order $O(α^5\logα^{-1})$, where $α$ denotes the finestructure constant, and prove rigorous bounds on the remainder term of the order $o(α^5\logα^{-1})$. As a consequence, we prove that the binding energy is not a real analytic function of $α$, and verify the existence of logarithmic corrections to the expansion of the ground state energy in powers of $α$, as conjectured in the recent literature.
Using the Pauli-Fierz model of non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics, we calculate the binding energy of an electron in the field of a nucleus of charge $Z$ and in presence of the quantized radiation field. We consider the case of small coupling constant $α$, but fixed $Zα$ and ultraviolet cut-off $Λ$. We prove that after renormalizing the mass the binding energy has, to leading order in $α$, a finite limit as $Λ$ goes to infinity; i.e., the cut-off can be removed. The expression for the ground state energy shift thus obtained agrees with Bethe's formula for small values of $Zα$, but shows …
We consider an atom interacting with the quantized electromagnetic field in the standard model of non-relativistic QED. The nucleus is supposed to be fixed. We prove smoothness of the resolvent and local decay of the photon dynamics for quantum states in a spectral interval I just above the ground state energy. Our results are uniform with respect to I. Their proofs are based on abstract Mourre's theory, a Mourre inequality established in [FGS1], Hardy-type estimates in Fock space, and a low-energy dyadic decomposition.
For a model of atoms and molecules made from static nuclei and non-relativistic electrons coupled to the quantized radiation field (the standard model of non-relativistic QED), we prove a Mourre estimate and a limiting absorption principle in a neighborhood of the ground state energy. As corollaries we derive local decay estimates for the photon dynamics, and we prove absence of (excited) eigenvalues and absolute continuity of the energy spectrum near the ground state energy, a region of the spectrum not understood in previous investigations. The conjugate operator in our Mourre estimate is th…
We study the Bogoliubov-Dirac-Fock (BDF) model, a no-photon, mean-field approxi- mation of quantum electrodynamics that allows to study relativistic electrons interacting with the vacuum. It is a variational model in which states are represented by Hilbert- Schmidt operators. We prove a charge renormalisation formula that holds close to the non-relativistic limit: the density of a ground state is shown to be integrable although such a state is known not to be trace-class. We prove that we can take the non-relativistic limit by keeping track of the vacuum polarisation. We get an altered Hartree…
We consider the ground state and the ground state energy of an atom with spinless electrons in the framework of non-relativistic qed. We show that the ground state energy as well as the ground state depend analytically on the parameters of the group of dilations, the parameter of a group of spatial dependent phase changes, and on the minimal coupling constant. As a corollary we obtain spatial exponential decay of the ground state as well as of its dilation analytic extension. No infrared regularization is needed for the result. Our result is based on operator theoretic renormalization.
We consider the problem of propagation of photons in the quantum theory of non-relativistic matter coupled to electromagnetic radiation, which is, presently, the only consistent quantum theory of matter and radiation. Assuming that the matter system is in a localized state (i.e for energies below the ionization threshold), we show that the probability to find photons at time t at the distance greater than ct, where c is the speed of light, vanishes as t goes to infinity as an inverse power of t.
We consider a non-relativistic electron bound by an external potential and coupled to the quantized electromagnetic field in the standard model of non-relativistic QED. We compute the energy functional of product states of the form $u\otimes Ψ_f$, where $u$ is a normalized state for the electron and $Ψ_f$ is a coherent state in Fock space for the photon field. The minimization of this functional yields a Maxwell--Schr{ö}dinger system up to a trivial renormalization. We prove the existence of a ground state under general conditions on the external potential and the coupling. In particular, neit…
We consider the ground state of an atom in the framework of non-relativistic qed. We assume that the ultraviolet cutoff is of the order of the Rydberg energy and that the atomic Hamiltonian has a non-degenerate ground state. We show that the ground state energy and the ground state are k-times continuously differentiable functions of the fine structure constant and respectively the square root of the fine structure constant on some nonempty interval [0,c_k).
Employing recent results on stochastic differential equations associated with the standard model of non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics by B. Güneysu, J.S. Møller, and the present author, we study the continuity of the corresponding semi-group between weighted vector-valued L^p-spaces, continuity properties of elements in the range of the semi-group, and the pointwise continuity of an operator-valued semi-group kernel. We further discuss the continuous dependence of the semi-group and its integral kernel on model parameters. All these results are obtained for Kato decomposable electrostat…
We consider a Haag-Kastler net in a positive energy representation, admitting massive Wigner particles and asymptotic fields of massless bosons. We show that states of the massive particles are always vacua of the massless asymptotic fields. Our argument is based on the Mean Ergodic Theorem in a certain extended Hilbert space. As an application of this result we construct the outgoing isometric wave operator for Compton scattering in QED in a class of representations recently proposed by Buchholz and Roberts. In the course of this analysis we use our new technique to further simplify scatterin…
We consider the semi-relativistic Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonian and a no-pair model of a hydrogen-like atom interacting with a quantized photon field at the respective critical values of the Coulomb coupling constant. For arbitrary values of the fine-structure constant and the ultra-violet cutoff, we prove the existence of normalizable ground states of the atomic system in both models. This complements earlier results on the existence of ground states in (semi-)relativistic models of quantum electrodynamics at sub-critical coupling by E. Stockmeyer and the present authors. Technically, the main new …
In this article, we consider fixed spin 1/2 particles interacting through the quantized electromagnetic field in a constant magnetic field. We give some asymptotic expansions for the ground state and the ground state energy of the Hamiltonian operator $H(h)$ describing this system. The first terms of these expansions enable to recover elementary formulas for the energy and the magnetic field of the spins when considered as magnets. A first order radiative correction is computed for the energy.
In this review we consider two different models of a hydrogenic atom in a quantized electromagnetic field that treat the electron relativistically. The first one is a no-pair model in the free picture, the second one is given by the semi-relativistic Pauli-Fierz Hamiltonian. For both models we discuss the semi-boundedness of the Hamiltonian, the strict positivity of the ionization energy, and the exponential localization in position space of spectral subspaces corresponding to energies below the ionization threshold. Moreover, we prove the existence of degenerate ground state eigenvalues at th…
We consider a spin-$\frac12$ electron in a translation-invariant model of non-relativistic Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Let $H(\vp,\sig)$ denote the fiber Hamiltonian corresponding to the conserved total momentum $\vp\in\R^3$ of the Pauli electron and the photon field, regularized by a fixed ultraviolet cutoff in the interaction term, and an infrared regularization parametrized by $0<\sig\ll1$ which we ultimately remove by taking $\sig\searrow0$. For $|\vp|<\puppbd$, all $\sig>0$, and all values of the finestructure constant $\gs<\gs_0$, with $\gs_0\ll1$ sufficiently small and {\em independe…
We consider a hydrogen-like atom in a quantized electromagnetic field which is modeled by means of a no-pair operator acting in the positive spectral subspace of the free Dirac operator minimally coupled to the quantized vector potential. We prove that the infimum of the spectrum of the no-pair operator is an evenly degenerate eigenvalue. In particular, we show that the bottom of its spectrum is strictly less than its ionization threshold. These results hold true, for arbitrary values of the fine-structure constant and the ultra-violet cut-off and for all Coulomb coupling constants less than t…
Various models of charged particles interacting with a quantized, ultraviolet cutoff radiation field (but not with each other) are investigated. Upper and lower bounds are found for the self- or ground state-energies without mass renormalization. For $N$ fermions the bounds are proportional to $N$, but for bosons they are sublinear, which implies `binding', and hence that `free' bosons are never free. Both `relativistic' and non-relativistic kinematics are considered. Our bounds are non-perturbative and differ significantly from the predictions of perturbation theory.
The operator-theoretic renormalization group (RG) methods are powerful analytic tools to explore spectral properties of field-theoretical models such as quantum electrodynamics (QED) with non-relativistic matter. In this paper these methods are extended and simplified. In a companion paper, our variant of operator-theoretic RG methods is applied to establishing the limiting absorption principle in non-relativistic QED near the ground state energy