1949/06/01 by Freeman J. Dyson · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
paper · doi:10.1103/physrev.75.1736
openalex publication_date 1949/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The covariant quantum electrodynamics of Tomonaga, Schwinger, and Feynman is used as the basis for a general treatment of scattering problems involving electrons, positrons, and photons. Scattering processes, including the creation and annihilation of particles, are completely described by the S matrix of Heisenberg. It is shown that the elements of this matrix can be calculated, by a consistent use of perturbation theory, to any desired order in the fine-structure constant. Detailed rules are given for carrying out such calculations, and it is shown that divergences arising from higher order radiative corrections can be removed from the S matrix by a consistent use of the ideas of mass and charge renormalization.Not considered in this paper are the problems of extending the treatment to include bound-state phenomena, and of proving the convergence of the theory as the order of perturbation itself tends to infinity.