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arXiv:quant-ph/9812036

Radiation reaction in quantum mechanics

Atsushi Higuchi

Published Dec 15, 1998• 3 citations
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Abstract

The Lorentz-Dirac radiation reaction formula predicts that the position shift of a charged particle due to the radiation reaction is of first order in acceleration if it undergoes a small acceleration. A semi-classical calculation shows that this is impossible at least if the acceleration is due to a time-independent potential. Thus, the Lorentz-Dirac formula gives an incorrect classical limit in this situation. The correct classical limit of the position shift at the lowest order in acceleration is obtained by assuming that the energy loss at each time is given by the Larmor formula.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/9812036

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The Lorentz-Dirac radiation reaction formula predicts that the position shift of a charged particle due to the radiation reaction is of first order in acceleration if it undergoes a small acceleration. A semi-classical calculation shows that this is impossible at least if the acceleration is due to a time-independent potential. Thus, the Lorentz-Dirac formula gives an incorrect classical limit in this situation. The correct classical limit of the position shift at the lowest order in acceleration is obtained by assuming that the energy loss at each time is given by the Larmor formula.
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We show that the classical equation of motion of a radiating charged point particle (the Lorentz-Dirac equation) has ``tunneling'' solutions. For a given initial position and velocity we find that, contrary to common belief, several different physically acceptable solutions exist for a range of initial data. Both features are demonstrated for a rectangular barrier. To check that these phenomena are not dependent on the discontinuities of the potential, we also study in detail the solutions for a smoothened (single) potential step.
The classical equation of motion of a charged point particle, including its radiation reaction, is described by the Lorentz-Dirac equation. We found a new class of solutions that describe tunneling (in a completely classical context!). For nonrelativistic electrons and a square barrier, the solution is elementary and explicit. We show the persistance of the solution for smoother potentials. For a large range of initial velocities, initial conditions may leave a (discrete) ambiguity on the resulting motion.
A natural all-order decorrelation procedure is described for the interaction of a single two-level atom with all modes of the radiation field which replaces the semi-classical boson approximation for the atom by an exact fermion treatment. In consequence the vacuum Lamb shift appears as twice the Bethe shift for each level separately instead of the limiting neo-classical shift obtained in the Bose theory. Stimulated emission and absorption modify the Einstein A-coefficient and the vacuum shift is extended to include a field dependent shift. The all-order decorrelated perturbation theory yields an equation of motion for the single-atom dipole moment which includes those reported from operator radiation reaction theory recently; but it also generalizes these by including the effects of stimulated processes. The method is extended to a many-atom case in which it becomes necessary to modify the procedure slightly.
We formally state the connection between the relativistic part of the radiation reaction and the Poynting Robertson force term, −Rv/c2-Rv/c^2−Rv/c2, where RRR is power radiated. Then we address the question, does $[x,p]=i \hb$ for an accelerating charge ? The full radiation reaction term is used, which includes the relativistic term (von Laue vector.). We show that the full relativistic radiation reaction term must be taken into account if a commutation relation between xxx and ppp is to hold for an electron under uniform acceleration, consistent with the expectation values of x2x^2x2 and p2p^2p2.