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Quantum Electrodynamics in a Nutshell

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Abstract

In this chapter we start by investigating charged particles interacting with electromagnetic fields as well as Maxwell’s equations in the framework of the Lagrange formalism. Our primary motivation for doing so is that there exists a direct link between classical models in the Lagrange formalism and their quantized versions using the so-called canonical quantization procedure. With this we show how to describe light-matter coupling in quantum mechanics, submit the electromagnetic fields to canonical quantization, and introduce the concept of photons.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We deviate here somewhat from the usual notation of p for the momenta, because the symbol is already reserved for the dipole moment, and use π instead.

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Hohenester, U. (2020). Quantum Electrodynamics in a Nutshell. In: Nano and Quantum Optics. Graduate Texts in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30504-8_13

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