Scaling of Aharonov-Bohm couplings and the dynamical vacuum in gauge theories

TL;DR

This paper explores how magnetic flux-induced vacuum polarization could prevent divergences in perturbative QED, proposing a nonperturbative vacuum structure similar to QCD's flux spaghetti, with implications for the theory's consistency.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism involving Aharonov-Bohm couplings to address divergence issues in QED, highlighting differences between spinor and scalar cases.

Findings

Vacuum polarization effects suggest a flux spaghetti-like vacuum structure in spinor QED.

The mechanism potentially resolves divergence problems in perturbative QED.

Scalar QED does not exhibit the same vacuum stabilization mechanism.

Abstract

Recent results on the vacuum polarization induced by a thin string of magnetic flux lead us to suggest an analogue of the Copenhagen `flux spaghetti' QCD vacuum as a possible mechanism for avoiding the divergence of perturbative QED, thus permitting consistent completion of the full, nonperturbative theory. The mechanism appears to operate for spinor, but not scalar, QED.