Weather Forecast for Vacuum Fluctuations in QED

TL;DR

This paper derives analytic formulas for vacuum fluctuation effects in QED, specifically the Uehling and Serber potentials, and explores their properties and experimental relevance, including connections to atmospheric photon propagation.

Contribution

It introduces a new analytic formulation of the Uehling and Serber potentials using Meijer G-functions, extending previous results and enabling detailed analysis.

Findings

Derived closed-form expressions for Uehling and Serber potentials.

Analyzed the properties and relevance of these potentials for precision measurements.

Connected the Uehling potential to photon propagation in atmospheric turbulence.

Abstract

We provide closed analytic expressions for the Uehling and Serber contributions of the vacuum fluctuations in QED using Meijer G-functions. Our work extends recently found results by offering a novel formulation for the Uehling and Serber potentials and explores their properties in more detail. The form of these potentials is analyzed, and their relevance for precision measurements in experiments is investigated. For the Uehling potential, we connect the solution with the propagation of photons through atmospheric turbulence.