Photon-Atom Processes Quantum Field Theory of Electrodynamics

Even a solitary electron in vacuum cannot be supposed as an isolated particle, because it interacts with itself and with the vacuum around it, being surrounded with virtual particle-antiparticle pairs Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics and has been developed to take all these effects into account. In substance, it shows how the interaction between light and matter works and is the first theory where complete agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is reached. Often mentioned to as a "jewel of physics", QED accurately explains all phenomena concerning electrically charged particles interacting by means of exchange of photons and represents the quantum complement of classical electromagnetism providing a comprehensive explanation of matter and light interaction. QED does not stop outside the atomic nucleus but it has all the potential to enter inside and be applied to a crowd of "particles" very different from the electrons, be they quarks or gluons. The important thing is to follow the same quantum "style". In this book, however, it will suffice to limit ourselves to the atomic periphery, with the only exception represented by the study of the propagators for the gauge bosons and chiral fermions of a single generation of the Standard Model. This book begins with an introductory Section 1 which treats of the representation of photons as the result of spin-charge separation effect in rest massless "boson-atomic" structure of electromagnetic field making substantially more clear the nature of corpuscular-wave dualism. Book jacket.