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    Chapter5 Script

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    Ashwin Balaji
    The document summarizes key aspects of quantizing Maxwell's Lagrangian to describe massless spin-1 particles (photons): 1. Quantizing the Maxwell Lagrangian leads to massless spin-1 particles (photons) that mediate long-range electromagnetic forces between charged particles. 2. In Coulomb gauge, the quantized Maxwell field is expressed as a mode expansion involving creation and annihilation operators, revealing that photons have spin 1 and helicity ±1. 3. The photon propagator is derived, showing its dependence on momentum and obeying Lorentz invariance.

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    Chapter5 Script

    Uploaded by

    Ashwin Balaji
    13 views5 pages
    The document summarizes key aspects of quantizing Maxwell's Lagrangian to describe massless spin-1 particles (photons): 1. Quantizing the Maxwell Lagrangian leads to massless spin-1 particles (photons) that mediate long-range electromagnetic forces between charged particles. 2. In Coulomb gauge, the quantized Maxwell field is expressed as a mode expansion involving creation and annihilation operators, revealing that photons have spin 1 and helicity ±1. 3. The photon propagator is derived, showing its dependence on momentum and obeying Lorentz invariance.

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    The document summarizes key aspects of quantizing Maxwell's Lagrangian to describe massless spin-1 particles (photons): 1. Quantizing the Maxwell Lagrangian leads to massless spin-1 particles (photons) that mediate long-range electromagnetic forces between charged particles. 2. In Coulomb gauge, the quantized Maxwell field is expressed as a mode expansion involving creation and annihilation operators, revealing that photons have spin 1 and helicity ±1. 3. The photon propagator is derived, showing its dependence on momentum and obeying Lorentz invariance.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    13 views5 pages

    Chapter5 Script

    Uploaded by

    Ashwin Balaji
    The document summarizes key aspects of quantizing Maxwell's Lagrangian to describe massless spin-1 particles (photons): 1. Quantizing the Maxwell Lagrangian leads to massless spin-1 particles (photons) that mediate long-range electromagnetic forces between charged particles. 2. In Coulomb gauge, the quantized Maxwell field is expressed as a mode expansion involving creation and annihilation operators, revealing that photons have spin 1 and helicity ±1. 3. The photon propagator is derived, showing its dependence on momentum and obeying Lorentz invariance.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
    of 5

    Chapter 5.

    GAUGE FIELDS
    In this chapter, we will quantize the Maxwell Lagrangian. This will lead to massless spin-1
    particles. As we will see in the next chapter, these particles mediate long range forces between
    charged particles.

    1. WIGNER’S CLASSIFICATION
    Particles are classified by mass m and spin j:
    • massive particles ⇒ 2j + 1 dofs ⇐ little group SO(3)
    • massless particles ⇒ 2 dofs ⇐ little group SO(2)
    However, Tµ1 ...µj has 4j components, so it is not an irrep of spin-j particles.
    We need to impose extra constraints to isolate the spin-j component of the field.

    2. MAXWELL EQUATION
    Goal: Construct a Lagrangian for Aµ that propagates the right dofs.
    Lorentz invariance and locality allow 2 possible kinetic terms

    Lkin = a1 L1 + a2 L2 ,

    where
    L1 = ∂µ Aν ∂ µ Aν ,
    L2 = ∂µ Aµ ∂ν Aν = ∂ν Aµ ∂µ Aν + boundary terms .

    Let us write Aµ ≡ µ + ∂µ φ, where ∂ µ µ = 0.


    ↑ ↑
    transverse longitudinal

    We then find Lφkin = (a1 + a2 )(φ)2 , which is equivalent to


     2
    1
    Lφkin = (a1 + a2 ) φ̃φ − φ̃2 ,
    4

    after integrating out the Lagrange multiplier field φ̃ = 2φ.


    Defining φ ≡ φ1 + φ2 and φ̃ ≡ φ1 − φ2 , this becomes
     2
    1
    Lφkin = (a1 + a2 ) + φ1 φ1 − φ2 φ2 − (φ1 − φ2 ) .
    4

    One of the two fields is always a ghost, unless a1 + a2 = 0.


    In that case, the longitudinal mode is non-dynamical and the transverse mode
    satisfies
    LÂ 2
    kin = a1 (∂µ Âν ) ,

    which has the right normalization for a1 = 12 .


    The only allowed kinetic term therefore is
    1 1 2
    Lkin = (∂µ Aν ∂ µ Aν − ∂µ Aµ ∂ν Aν ) = − Fµν ,
    2 4
    where Fµν ≡ ∂µ Aν − ∂ν Aµ .
    A massless spin-1 field therefore must satisfy the Maxwell Lagrangian

    1 2
    LMaxwell = − Fµν .
    4
    This Lagrangian has a gauge symmetry: Aµ → Aµ + ∂µ α.
    The theory therefore only has two propagating dofs.
    This can be seen explicitly in Coulomb gauge, where ∂ i Ai = 0.
    The Lagrangian then is
    1 1 1
    LMaxwell = Ȧ2i − (∂j Ai )2 + (∂i A0 )2 .
    2 2 2
    We see that A0 is non-dynamical and can be set to A0 ≡ 0 using the residual
    gauge freedom, A0 → A0 + α̇, with ∂i2 α = 0. The Lagrangian becomes
    1
    LMaxwell = (∂µ Ai )2 ,
    2
    subject to the constraint ∂ i Ai = 0. This describes the two transverse polariza-
    tions of Ai .

    2
    A masssive spin-1 field must satisfy the Proca Lagrangian

    1 2 1
    LProca = − Fµν + m2 A2µ .
    4 2
    The corresponding equation of motion is

    ∂ µ Fµν = m2 Aν .

    Acting with ∂ ν , we find ∂ ν Aν = 0.


    The theory therefore has three propagating dofs.
    This can also be seen by substituting Aµ ≡ µ + m−1 ∂µ φ, which gives
    1 1 1
    LProca = (∂µ Âν )2 + m2 Â2µ + (∂µ φ)2 .
    2 2 2
    We see that the longitudinal mode has been revived by the mass term.

    3. QUANTIZATION
    In Coulomb gauge, the Maxwell equation is

    A = 0 , with ∇ · A = 0 ,

    whose solutions can be written as

    A(x) = λ (p) e−ipx ,

    where p · λ = 0, for λ = 1, 2.
    The mode expansion of the operator A(x) therefore is

    d3 p
    Z
    1 Xh λ +ip·x ∗ λ† −ip·x
    i
    A(x) = λ (p) ap e + λ (p) ap e ,
    (2π)3 2Ep
    p
    λ

    0  0
    where aλp , aλq † ≡ (2π)3 δ (3) (p − q) δ λλ .
    

    The commutator of Ai and its conjugate momentum Πi = −F 0i = E i is

    d3 p ip·(x−y) ij pi pj
    Z  
    i j ij
    [A (x), E (y)] = i 3
    e δ − 2 ≡ i δ⊥ (x − y) .
    (2π) |p|

    3
    Substituting the mode expansion into the Hamiltonian and momentum opera-
    tors, we find

    d3 p X
    Z
    H= 3
    Ep aλ† λ
    p ap ,
    (2π)
    λ
    Z 3
    dp X
    P= 3
    p aλ† λ
    p ap .
    (2π)
    λ

    Hence, aλ† p |0i creates particles of momentum p and energy Ep = |p|. With a
    little bit of effort, we could also show that they have spin 1 and helicity λ = ±1.
    We have discovered photons!

    4. PHOTON PROPAGATOR
    The Feynman propagator for the field Ai is

    ∆ij i j
    F (x − y) ≡ h0|T {A (x)A (y)}|0i

    d4 p i j
    Z  
    i p p
    = 4 2
    δ ij − 2
    e−ip·(x−y) .
    (2π) p + i |p|

    What about Lorentz invariance?


    Consider
    1 2
    L = − Fµν − Aµ J µ + · · · ,
    4
    where ∂µ J µ = 0, so that Aµ → Aµ + ∂µ α remains a symmetry.
    In Coulomb gauge, this becomes
    1 1 1
    L = Ȧ2i − (∂j Ai )2 − A0 ∇2 A0 − A0 J 0 + Ai J i .
    2 2 2
    Unlike before, we are not allowed to set A0 = 0.
    Instead, the equation of motion implies

    J 0 (t, y)
    Z
    ∇2 A0 = −J 0 ⇒ A0 (t, x) = d3 y .
    4π|x − y|

    4
    Substituting this back into the Lagrangian gives
    Z 0 0
    1 2 i 1 3 J (t, x)J (t, y)
    L = (∂µ Ai ) + Ai J + dy .
    2 2 4π|x − y|
    ↑
    nonlocal Coulomb term
    We could capture the Coulomb term by defining the following propagator for
    the field A0 (x):
    0
    − 0
    d4 p e−ip·(x−y)
    Z
    δ(x y )
    ∆00
    F (x − y) = = .
    4π|x − y| (2π)4 |p|2

    The propagator for the field Aµ (x) then is


    i


     2
    µ=ν=0



     |p|
    i j
      
    µν
    ∆F (p) = i ij p p
    δ − µ = i, ν = j


     p2 + i |p|2



    0 otherwise

    This can be written as


    µ ν µ ν µ ν
     
    i p p − p p̃ − p̃ p
    ∆µν
    F (p) = 2 −η µν + ,
    p + i |p|2

    where p̃µ ≡ (0, pi ).


    Since pµ Jµ = 0, we have
    −i ∗
    Jµ∗ (p)∆µν
    F (p)Jν (p) = 2
    Jµ (p)J µ (p) .
    p
    We would get the same if we used

    −iη µν
    ∆µν
    F (p) = .
    p2 + i

    A more direct way to obtain this propagator is to work in Lorentz gauge.

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