Radiation reaction in strong field QED

TL;DR

This paper derives radiation reaction effects in strong field QED, comparing quantum and classical results, and identifies the contributing processes to electron recoil in intense electromagnetic backgrounds.

Contribution

It provides a derivation of radiation reaction from QED in strong fields and compares quantum results with classical electrodynamics, including quantum corrections.

Findings

Agreement with classical equations in the classical limit

Identification of contributing diagrams in QED

First quantum corrections to radiation reaction

Abstract

We derive radiation reaction from QED in a strong background field. We identify, in general, the diagrams and processes contributing to recoil effects in the average momentum of a scattered electron, using perturbation theory in the Furry picture: we work to lowest nontrivial order in the electromagnetic coupling alpha. For the explicit example of scattering in a plane wave background, we compare QED with classical electrodynamics in the limit h-bar goes to zero, finding agreement with the Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac and Landau-Lifshitz equations, and with Larmor's formula. The first quantum corrections are also presented.