Radiation reaction from QED: lightfront perturbation theory in a plane wave background

TL;DR

This paper derives radiation reaction effects in quantum electrodynamics using lightfront perturbation theory in a plane wave background, clarifying the connection between quantum results and classical equations.

Contribution

It introduces a method combining lightfront QED with a plane wave background to derive radiation reaction effects without additional approximations.

Findings

Derivation of real-time radiation reaction effects from QED.

Identification of classical equations consistent with quantum results.

Application of the Furry picture in a lightfront Hamiltonian formalism.

Abstract

We derive dynamical, real time radiation reaction effects from lightfront QED. Combining the Hamiltonian formalism with a plane wave background field, the calculation is performed in the Furry picture for which the background is treated exactly while interactions between quantum fields are treated in perturbation theory as normal. We work to a fixed order in perturbation theory, but no other approximation is made. The literature contains many proposals for the correct classical equation describing a radiating particle; we take the classical limit of our results and identify which equations are consistent with QED.