The Electromagnetic Gauge Field Interpolation between the Instant Form and the Front Form of the Hamiltonian Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper develops a unified framework for interpolating electromagnetic gauge fields between instant and front forms of relativistic Hamiltonian dynamics, extending previous scalar field results to sQED and analyzing gauge choices, polarization, and scattering amplitudes.

Contribution

It introduces a general physical gauge interpolating between instant and front forms, derives photon polarization vectors and propagators for any interpolation angle, and clarifies the relation between LFD and infinite momentum frame.

Findings

Unified gauge interpolation links Coulomb and light-front gauges.

Photon polarization vectors applicable for any interpolation angle.

Analysis of scattering amplitudes reveals symmetry breaking and the J-shaped correlation.

Abstract

We present the electromagnetic gauge field interpolation between the instant form and the front form of the relativistic Hamiltonian dynamics and extend our interpolation of the scattering amplitude presented in the simple scalar field theory to the case of the electromagnetic gauge field theory with the scalar fermion fields known as the sQED theory. We find that the Coulomb gauge in the instant form dynamics (IFD) and the light-front gauge in the front form dynamics, or the light-front dynamics (LFD), are naturally linked by the unified general physical gauge that interpolates between these two forms of dynamics and derive the spin-1 polarization vector for the photon that can be generally applicable for any interpolation angle. Corresponding photon propagator for an arbitrary interpolation angle is found and examined in terms of the gauge field polarization and the interpolating time ordering. Using these results, we calculate the lowest-order scattering processes for an arbitrary interpolation angle in sQED. We provide an example of breaking the reflection symmetry under the longitudinal boost, $P^z \leftrightarrow -P^z$, for the time-ordered scattering amplitude in any interpolating dynamics except the LFD and clarify the confusion in the prevailing notion of the equivalence between the infinite momentum frame (IMF) and the LFD. The particular correlation found in our previous analysis of the scattering amplitude in the simple scalar field theory, coined as the J-shaped correlation, between the total momentum of the system and the interpolation angle persists in the present analysis of the sQED scattering amplitude. We discuss the singular behavior of this correlation in conjunction with the zero-mode issue in the LFD.