https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5498-x
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Effects of the fermionic vacuum polarization in QED
1
IFQ-Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Av. BPS 1303, Caixa Postal 50, Itajubá, MG, CEP 37500-903, Brazil
2
Niterói, RJ, Brazil
* e-mail: fbarone@unifei.edu.br
Received:
3
December
2017
Accepted:
22
December
2017
Published online:
9
January
2018
Some effects of vacuum polarization in QED due to the presence of field sources are investigated. We focus on effects with no counter-part in Maxwell electrodynamics. The the Uehling interaction energy between two stationary point-like charges is calculated exactly in terms of Meijer-G functions. Effects induced on a hydrogen atom by the vacuum polarization in the vicinity of a Dirac string are considered. We also calculate the interaction between two parallel Dirac strings and corrections to the energy levels of a quantum particle constrained to move on a ring circumventing a solenoid.
© The Author(s), 2018
