Electron in a transverse harmonic potential

TL;DR

This paper presents a non-perturbative Hamiltonian light-front quantum field theory approach to solve for an electron in a strong transverse harmonic potential, reproducing known results and enabling new insights into particle behavior under strong external fields.

Contribution

The authors develop a basis function method within light-front QFT to non-perturbatively analyze an electron in a transverse harmonic potential, including calculations of mass spectra and magnetic moments.

Findings

Reproduced perturbative QED results with high accuracy.

Calculated invariant mass spectra and magnetic moments of the electron.

Demonstrated the method's extension potential to other quantum field problems.

Abstract

Non-perturbative solutions to the quantum-field theory is a topic of current and broad interest, especially for the heavy ion and laser physics communities, since they investigate particle production in the presence of strong external fields. We have solved a non-perturbative QED + external field problem of an electron in a strong transverse confining potential using Hamiltonian light-front quantum field theory in a basis function representation. The invariant mass spectra and the anomalous magnetic moment of the lowest state for this two-scale system are also evaluated. With this method the perturbative QED results are also reproduced with a good accuracy. We also discuss the extension of the method to other problems as well.