Martin Land

On Feynman’s approach to the foundations of gauge theory

In 1948, Feynman showed Dyson how the Lorentz force law and homogeneous Maxwell equations could be derived from commutation relations among Euclidean coordinates and velocities, without reference to an action or variational principle. When Dyson published the work in 1990, several authors noted that the derived equations have only Galilean symmetry and so are not actually the Maxwell theory. In particular, Hojman and Shepley proved that the existence of commutation relations is a strong assumption, sufficient to determine the corresponding action, which for Feynman’s derivation is of Newtonian form. In a recent paper, Tanimura generalized Feynman’s derivation to a Lorentz covariant form with scalar evolution parameters, and obtained an expression for the Lorentz force which appears to be consistent with relativistic kinematics and relates the force to the Maxwell field in the usual manner. However, Tanimura’s derivation does not lead to the usual Maxwell theory either, because the force equation depends o...

Green's functions for off-shell electromagnetism and spacelike correlations

The requirement of gauge invariance for the Schwinger-DeWitt equations, interpreted as a manifestly covariant quantum theory for the evolution of a system in spacetime, implies the existence of a five-dimensional pre-Maxwell field on the manifold of spacetime and “proper time” τ. The Maxwell theory is contained in this theory; integration of the field equations over τ restores the Maxwell equations with the usual interpretation of the sources. Following Schwingers techniques, we study the Greens functions for the five-dimensional hyperbolic field equations for both signatures ± [corresponding to O(4, 1) or O(3, 2) symmetry of the field equations] of the proper time derivative. The classification of the Greens functions follows that of the four-dimensional theory for “massive” fields, for which the “mass” squared may be positive or negative, respectively. The Greens functions for the five-dimensional field are then given by the Fourier transform over the “mass” parameter. We derive the Greens functions corresponding to the principal part ΔP and the homogeneous function Δ1; all of the Greens functions can be expressed in terms of these, as for the usual field equations with definite mass. In the O(3, 2) case, the principal part function has support for x2⩾τ2, corresponding to spacelike propagation, as well as along the light cone x2=0 (for τ=0). There can be no transmission ofinformation in spacelike directions, with this propagator, since the Maxwell field, obtained by integration over τ, does not contain this component of the support. Measurements are characterized by such an integration. The spacelike field therefore can dynamically establish spacelike correlations.

The Lorentz force and energy-momentum for off-shell electromagnetism

The kinematics of pre-Maxwell electrodynamics is examined and interpretations of these fields is found through an examination of the associated Lorentz force and the structure of the energy-momentum tensor.

Particles and events in classical off-shell electrodynamics

Despite the many successes of the relativistic quantum theory developed by Horwitz et al., certain difficulties persist in the associated covariant classical mechanics. In this paper, we explore these difficulties through an examination of the classical. Coulomb problem in the framework of off-shell electrodynamics. As the local gauge theory of a covariant quantum mechanics with evolution paratmeter τ, off-shell electrodynamics constitutes a dynamical theory of ppacetime events, interacting through five τ-dependent pre-Maxwell potentials. We present a straightforward solution of the classical equations of motion, for a test event traversing the field induced by a “fixed” event (an event moving uniformly along the time axis at a fixed point in space). This solution is seen to be unsatisfactory, and reveals the essential difficulties in the formalism at the classical levels. We then offer a new model of the particle current—as a certain distribution of the event currents on the worldline—which eliminates these difficulties and permits comparison of classisical off-shell electrodynamics with the standard Maxwell theory. In this model, the “fixed” event induces a Yukawa-type potential, permitting a semiclassical identification of the pre-Maxwell time scale λ with the inverse mass of the intervening photon. Numerical solutions to the equations of motion are compared with the standard Maxwell solutions, and are seen to coincide when λ≳10−6 seconds, providing an initial estimate of this parameter. It is also demonstrated that the proposed model provides a natural interpretation for the photon mass cut-off required for the renormalizability of the off-shell quantum electrodynamics.

The Zeeman effect for the relativistic bound state

In the context of a relativistic quantum mechanics with invariant evolution parameter, solutions for the relativistic bound-state problem have been found, which yield a spectrum for the total mass coinciding with the non-relativistic Schrodinger energy spectrum. These spectra were obtained by choosing an arbitrary spacelike unit vector n, and restricting the support of the eigenfunctions in spacetime to the subspace of the Minkowski measure space, for which (Xperpendicular to )2=(x-(x.n)n)2>or=0. In this paper, we examine the normal Zeeman effect (in lowest order) for these bound states, which requires nmu to be a dynamical quantity. We recover the usual Zeeman splitting in a manifestly covariant form.

Offshell quantum electrodynamics

In this paper, we develop the quantum field theory of off-shell electromagnetism, and use it to calculate the Moller scattering cross-section. This calculation leads to qualitative deviations from the usual scattering cross-sections, which are, however, small effects, but may be visible at small angles near the forward direction.

Selection rules for dipole radiation from a relativistic bound state

Recently, in the framework of a relativistic quantum theory with invariant evolution parameter, solutions have been found for the two-body bound state, whose mass spectrum agrees with the nonrelativistic Schrödinger energy spectrum. In this paper, we study the radiative transitions of these states in the dipole approximation and find that the selection rules are identical with those of the usual nonrelativistic theory, expressed in a manifestly covariant form. In addition to the transverse and longitudinal polarizations of the nonrelativistic theory, we find a “scalar” transition, induced by the relative time coordinate, which is of the same type as the longitudinal transition, expressing the Lorentz covariance of the theory.

Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac equation in 5D Stuekelberg electrodynamics

We derive the Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac (ALD) equation in the framework of the electrodynamic theory associated with Stueckelberg manifestly covariant canonical mechanics. In this framework, a particle worldline is traced out through the evolution of an event xμ (τ). By admitting unconstrained commutation relations between the positions and velocities, the associated electromagnetic gauge fields are in general dependent on the parameter τ, which plays the role of time in Newtonian mechanics. Standard Maxwell theory emerges from this system as a τ-independent equilibrium limit. In this paper, we calculate the τ-dependent field induced by an arbitrarily evolving event, and study the long-range radiation part, which is seen to be an on-shell plane wave of the Maxwell type. Following Diracs method, we obtain an expression for the finite part of the self-interaction, which leads to the ALD equation that generalizes the Lorentz force. This third-order differential equation is then converted to an integro-differential equation, identical to the standard Maxwell expression, except for the τ-dependence of the field. By studying this τ-dependence in detail, we show that field can be removed from the integration, so that the Lorentz force depends only on the instantaneous external field and an integral over dynamical variables of the event evolution. In this form, pre-acceleration of the event by future values of the field is not present.

Duality in Off-Shell Electromagnetism

In this paper, we examine the Dirac monopole in the framework of Off-Shell Electromagnetism, the five-dimensional U(1) gauge theory associated with Stueckelberg–Schrodinger relativistic quantum theory. After reviewing the Dirac model in four dimensions, we show that the structure of the five-dimensional theory prevents a natural generaliza tion of the Dirac monopole, since the theory is not symmetric under duality transforma tions. It is shown that the duality symmetry can be restored by generalizing the electromagnetic field strength to an element of a Clifford algebra. Nevertheless, the generalized framework does not permit us to recover the phenomenological (or conventional) absence of magnetic monopoles.

Higher-Order Kinetic Term for Controlling Photon Mass in Off-Shell Electrodynamics

In relativistic classical and quantum mechanics with Poincaré-invariant parameter, particle worldlines are traced out by the evolution of spacetime events. The formulation of a covariant canonical framework for the evolving events leads to a dynamical theory in which mass conservation is demoted from a priori constraint to the status of conserved Noether current for a certain class of interactions. In pre-Maxwell electrodynamics—the local gauge theory associated with this framework —events induce five local off-shell fields, which mediate interactions between instantaneous events, not between the worldlines which represent entire particle histories. The fifth field, required to compensate for dependence of gauge transformations on the evolution parameter, enables the exchange of mass between particles and fields. In the equilibrium limit, these pre-Maxwell fields are pushed onto the zero-mass shell, but during interactions there is no mechanism regulating the mass that photons may acquire, even when event trajectories evolve far into the spacelike region. This feature of the off-shell formalism requires the application of some ad hoc mechanism for controlling the photon mass in two opposite physical domains: the low energy motion of a charged event in classical Coulomb scattering, and the renormalization of off-shell quantum electrodynamics. In this paper, we discuss a nonlocal, higher derivative correction to the photon kinetic term, which provides regulation of the photon mass in a manner which preserves the gauge invariance and Poincaré covariance of the original theory. We demonstrate that the inclusion of this term is equivalent to an earlier solution to the classical Coulomb problem, and that the resulting quantum field theory is renormalized.