Effective action for QED_4 through zeta function regularization

TL;DR

This paper derives the one-loop effective action for massive Dirac fields in a uniform electromagnetic background using zeta function regularization, and compares it with Schwinger's proper time method.

Contribution

It introduces a zeta function regularization approach for calculating the effective action in QED_4 and provides a comparison with traditional methods.

Findings

Derived the effective action using zeta function regularization.

Compared zeta function results with Schwinger's proper time approach.

Discussed renormalization in the context of the calculation.

Abstract

We obtain, through zeta function methods, the one-loop effective action for massive Dirac fields in the presence of a uniform, but otherwise general, electromagnetic background. After discussing renormalization, we compare our zeta function result with Schwinger's proper time approach.