Nonperturbative calculations in light-front QED

TL;DR

This paper applies light-front quantization and Pauli-Villars regularization to nonperturbatively compute the dressed-electron state in QED, testing methods for potential application to quantum chromodynamics.

Contribution

It demonstrates a nonperturbative calculation of the dressed-electron state in QED using a truncated Fock basis and chiral-symmetry-preserving regularization methods.

Findings

Successfully computed the electron's anomalous magnetic moment.

Highlighted importance of chiral symmetry preservation in regularization.

Validated light-front methods for gauge theories.

Abstract

The methods of light-front quantization and Pauli-Villars regularization are applied to a nonperturbative calculation of the dressed-electron state in quantum electrodynamics. This is intended as a test of the methods in a gauge theory, as a precursor to possible methods for the nonperturbative solution of quantum chromodynamics. The electron state is truncated to include at most two photons and no positrons in the Fock basis, and the wave functions of the dressed state are used to compute the electrons's anomalous magnetic moment. A choice of regularization that preserves the chiral symmetry of the massless limit is critical for the success of the calculation.