Influence of a Perfectly Conducting Plate on the Uehling Potential of QED

TL;DR

This paper studies how a perfectly conducting plate significantly alters the quantum correction to the Coulomb potential in QED, using an advanced method of images for photon propagators.

Contribution

It extends the method of images to quantum corrections in QED, revealing a stronger influence of the conducting plate than previously expected.

Findings

The conducting plate markedly enhances the Uehling potential correction.

The method of images can be adapted to quantum propagators beyond classical applications.

Quantum effects are more sensitive to boundary conditions than classical intuition suggests.

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the influence of a perfectly conducting plate on the Uehling potential of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), corresponding to the first loop correction to the classical Coulomb potential in that situation. We use the method of images adapted to the photon propagator, extending the method beyond the standard (classical) tree level calculation. We show that the effect of the plate on the quantum correction is much stronger than the expectation from a naive application of the method of images.