Classical and Quantum Radiation Reaction

TL;DR

This thesis compares classical and quantum radiation reaction effects on particle position shifts, calculating and contrasting the phenomena using perturbative methods and quantum field theory for scalar and spinor particles.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of classical and quantum radiation reaction effects, including new calculations of position shifts in quantum electrodynamics for scalar and Dirac particles.

Findings

Classical position shift calculated via perturbation theory.

Quantum position shift derived from one-loop QED processes.

Comparison shows agreement in the classical limit.

Abstract

This thesis reports on work undertaken in comparing the effects of the phenomenon of radiation reaction in classical and quantum theories of electrodynamics. Specifically, it is concerned with the prediction of the change in position of a particle due to the inclusion of the self-force in the theory. We calculate this position shift for the classical theory, treating radiation reaction as a perturbation in line with the reduction of order procedure. We calculate the contributions to the position shift in the $\hbar\to 0$ limit of quantum field theory to order $e^2$ in the coupling, the order of the classical self-force. These calculations contain the emission and forward scattering one loop processes of quantum electrodynamics. The quantum calculations are completed for the case of a particle represented by a scalar field wave packet and then for a particle represented by the Dirac spinor field. We additionally give an alternative derivation of the scalar results using the interpretation of radiation reaction via a Green's function decomposition, in order to explain and contrast the results achieved.