The Lamb shift in non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics

A new viewpoint concerning the calculation of the Lamb shift for an atomic ground state is presented in the framework of non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics. It is shown that a generalization of the Craig-Power transformation, developed to investigate long-range intermolecular forces, produces a new form for the non-relativistic hamiltonian. This hamiltonian enables the Lamb shift energy to be obtained as the expectation value of an effective interaction energy alone with no contribution from the expectation value of the unperturbed parts. This is in contrast with the necessity to find the expectation values for all three contributions in both the minimal coupled and the multipolar coupled forms of the hamiltonian for non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics.     

Hund's rule and the Z expansion for the energy,electron repulsion and electron nuclear attraction

A Z expansion is derived for the expectation values of the interelectronic repulsion energy and the electron-nuclear attraction energy in atomic states. The formalism, which is based on a non-relativistic hamiltonian, is applied to excited states in iso-electronic sequences. It appears that there are many cases where the state of the highest multiplicity has the larger expectation value for the interelectronic repulsion energy although it has a lower total energy.     

Symmetry Breaking for Matter Coupled to Linearized Supergravity from the Perspective of the Current Supermultiplet

We consider a generic supersymmetric matter theory coupled to linearized supergravity, and analyze scenarios for spontaneous symmetry breaking in terms of vacuum expectation values of components of the current supermultiplet. When the vacuum expectation of the energy momentum tensor is zero, but the scalar current or pseudoscalar current gets an expectation, evaluation of the gravitino self energy using the supersymmetry current algebra shows that there is an induced gravitino mass term. The structure of this term generalizes the supergravity action with cosmological constant to theories with CP violation. When the vacuum expectation of the energy momentum tensor is nonzero, supersymmetry is broken; requiring cancellation of the cosmological constant gives the corresponding generalized gravitino mass formula.     

Chromomagnetic vacuum fields in a spherical bag

Vacuum expectation values of the gauge fields within a spherical bag are calculated. The colourmagnetic contribution is dominant and the energy density is everywhere negative.     

E6 symmetry breaking in the superstring theory

We derive two methods for determining the symmetry breaking of E₆ in the low energy superstring theory, and classify all breaking patterns. A method for calculating the effective Higgs vacuum expectation values is presented. We show that there are theories with naturally light SU₂^w Higgs doublets, and classify all theories in which this occurs. The phenomenology of spontaneously broken E₆ theories is discussed, emphasizing the issues of nucleon decay and neutrino masses.     

Vacuum fluctuations and topological Casimir effect in Friedmann–Robertson–Walker cosmologies with compact dimensions

We investigate the Wightman function, the vacuum expectation values of the field squared and the energy–momentum tensor for a massless scalar field with general curvature coupling parameter in spatially flat Friedmann–Robertson–Walker universes with an arbitrary number of toroidally compactified dimensions. The topological parts in the expectation values are explicitly extracted and in this way the renormalization is reduced to that for the model with trivial topology. In the limit when the comoving lengths of the compact dimensions are very short compared to the Hubble length, the topological parts coincide with those for a conformal coupling and they are related to the corresponding quantities in the flat spacetime by standard conformal transformation. This limit corresponds to the adiabatic approximation. In the opposite limit of large comoving lengths of the compact dimensions, in dependence of the curvature coupling parameter, two regimes are realized with monotonic or oscillatory behavior of the vacuum expectation values. In the monotonic regime and for non-conformally and non-minimally coupled fields the vacuum stresses are isotropic and the equation of state for the topological parts in the energy density and pressures is of barotropic type. For conformal and minimal couplings the leading terms in the corresponding asymptotic expansions vanish and the vacuum stresses, in general, are anisotropic, though the equation of state remains of barotropic type. In the oscillatory regime, the amplitude of the oscillations for the topological part in the expectation value of the field squared can be either decreasing or increasing with time, whereas for the energy–momentum tensor the oscillations are damping. The limits of validity of the adiabatic approximation are discussed.     

Exact formulas and phase-integral formulas,not involving wavefunctions,for expectation values pertaining to general potentials

An exact formula for quantal expectation values associated with bound states in a general potential is derived. The formula does not contain wavefunctions, but is expressed in terms of derivatives, with respect to an auxiliary parameter and with respect to the energy, of a function appearing in an exact quantization condition. Replacing the exact quantization condition by a phase-integral quantization condition (which in some cases may be exact as well), one obtains a useful formula for calculating quantal expectation values, without the use of wavefunctions, for any potential for which a phase-integral quantization condition is known. Explicit phase-integral formulas are given for the case of a single-well potential.     

Electromagnetic Casimir densities for a wedge with a coaxial cylindrical shell

Vacuum expectation values of the field square and the energy-momentum tensor for the electromagnetic field are investigated for the geometry of a wedge with a coaxial cylindrical boundary. All boundaries are assumed to be perfectly conducting, and both regions inside and outside the shell are considered. By using the generalized Abel–Plana formula, the vacuum expectation values are presented in the form of the sum of two terms. The first one corresponds to the geometry of the wedge without the cylindrical shell, and the second term is induced by the presence of the shell. The vacuum energy density induced by the shell is negative for the interior region and positive for the exterior region. The asymptotic behavior of the vacuum expectation values are investigated in various limiting cases. It is shown that the vacuum forces acting on the wedge sides due to the presence of the cylindrical boundary are always attractive. PACS 03.70.+k     

Modified weak energy condition for the energy momentum tensor in quantum field theory

The weak energy condition is known to fail in general when applied to expectation values of the energy momentum tensor in flat space quantum field theory. It is shown how the usual counter arguments against its validity are no longer applicable if the states |ψ〉 for which the expectation value is considered are restricted to a suitably defined subspace. A possible natural restriction on |ψ〉 is suggested and illustrated by two quantum mechanical examples based on a simple perturbed harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian. The proposed alternative quantum weak energy condition is applied to states formed by the action of the scalar, vector and the energy momentum tensor operators on the vacuum. We assume conformal invariance in order to determine almost uniquely three-point functions involving the energy momentum tensor in terms of a few parameters. The positivity conditions lead to non-trivial inequalities for these parameters. They are satisfied in free field theories, except in one case for dimensions close to two. Further restrictions on |ψ〉 are suggested which remove this problem. The inequalities which follow from considering the state formed by applying the energy momentum tensor to the vacuum are shown to imply that the coefficient of the topological term in the expectation value of the trace of the energy momentum tensor in an arbitrary curved space background is positive, in accord with calculations in free field theories.     

Approximate analytical solutions and mean energies of stationary Schrödinger equation for general molecular potential

The Schrödinger equation is solved with general molecular potential via the improved quantization rule. Expression for bound state energy eigenvalues, radial eigenfunctions, mean kinetic energy, and potential energy are obtained in compact form. In modeling the centrifugal term of the effective potential, a Pekeris-like approximation scheme is applied. Also, we use the Hellmann-Feynman theorem to derive the relation for expectation values. Bound state energy eigenvalues, wave functions and meanenergies of Woods-Saxon potential, Morse potential, Möbius squared and Tietz-Hua oscillators are deduced from the general molecular potential. In addition, we use our equations to compute the bound state energy eigenvalues and expectation values for four diatomic molecules viz. H₂, CO, HF, and O₂. Results obtained are in perfect agreement with the data available from the literature for the potentials and molecules. Studies also show that as the vibrational quantum number increases, the mean kinetic energy for the system in a Tietz-Hua potential increases slowly to a threshold value and then decreases. But in a Morse potential, the mean kinetic energy increases linearly with vibrational quantum number increasing.     

Quantum effects in the Gowdy T3 cosmology

The Gowdy T³ Cosmology is an exact solution to the vacuum Einstein equations interpreted to be a single polarization of gravitational waves propagating in an anisotropic, spatially inhomogeneous background. The classical behavior is reviewed and related to standard cosmological parameters. Canonical quantization of the dynamical degrees of freedom is reviewed. An adiabatic vacuum state is constructed. Adiabatic regularization is used to obtain non-divergent stress-energy tensor vacuum expectation values. Casimir energy terms due to T³ imposed discrete modes are evaluated. The vacuum expectation values are analyzed in early and late time limits and evaluated numerically. The regularized expectation value is used as a source for the classical background spacetime in the spirit of semi-classical gravity. An entirely vacuum expectation value source term produces essentially the time reverse of the classical evolution. Classical stress-energy added to the source restores the classical behavior at late times only. The combined system collapses from infinite to small but non-zero volume and reexpands. The classical singularity is replaced by a symmetric bounce.     

Standard model Higgs field and energy scale of gravity

The effective potential of the Higgs scalar field in the Standard Model may have a second degenerate minimum at an ultrahigh vacuum expectation value. This second minimum then determines, by radiative corrections, the values of the top-quark and Higgs-boson masses at the standard minimum corresponding to the electroweak energy scale. An argument is presented that this ultrahigh vacuum expectation value is proportional to the energy scale of gravity, E _Planck ≡ √?c ⁵/G _N, considered to be characteristic of a spacetime foam. In the context of a simple model, the existence of kink-type wormhole solutions places a lower bound on the ultrahigh vacuum expectation value and this lower bound is of the order of E _Planck.     

The state of an atomic-molecular system near the stability threshold

The state of an atomic-molecular system near its stability threshold with regard to the detachment of one of the particles is studied. The decay of the system upon a decrease in the charge of a binding particle, as well upon an increasasymmetry of masses of like-charged particles, is considered. A special variational principle that allows one to directly calculate the threshold state of the system without repeatedly calculating its energy for different values of masses and charges of particles is used. With the motion of all particles fully taken into account, the threshold states of two-electron atoms with different nuclear charges and of atomic-molecular systems corresponding to the attachment of a positron of variable mass to a neutral atom are calculated. On the basis of calculation of quantum-mechanical expectation values of the kinetic energy of particles and the potential energy of their interaction, the rearrangement of the wave function upon passage of the system through the decay threshold is examined. The threshold characteristics of a purely adiabatic system containing infinitely heavy particles are considered separately.     

Configuration space for random walk dynamics

Applied to statistical physics models, the random cost algorithm enforces a Random Walk (RW) in energy (or possibly other thermodynamic quantities). The dynamics of this procedure is distinct from fixed weight updates. The probability for a configuration to be sampled depends on a number of unusual quantities, which are explained in this paper. This has been overlooked in recent literature, where the method is advertised for the calculation of canonical expectation values. We illustrate these points for the 2d Ising model. In addition, we prove a previously conjectured equation which relates microcanonical expectation values to the spectral density. Received: 13 May 1998 / Received in final form and Accepted: 26 May 1998     

Calculation of Energy and Other Properties of Muonic Helium Atom Using Boundary Conditions of Wave Function

The properties of muonic helium atom (⁴He⁺²μ^-e^-) in ground state are considered. In this work, the energy and average distance between particles have been obtained using a wave function, which satisfies boundary conditions. It is shown that the obtained energy are very close to the values calculated by others. But the small differences of the expectation values of r²ⁿare due to the incorporated boundary conditions in proposed wave function and are expected.     

Influence of higgs particles on cosmological models

It is shown that a conformally invariant scalar field can have anomalous vacuum expectation values in a Tolman universe of any kind: closed, quasi-Euclidean, or open. The anomalous vacuum expectation values lead in the initial stages of evolution of the universe to the existence of negative energy in the closed and quasi-Euclidean models if the square of the unrenormalized mass is negative and, in the open model, if the square of the unrenormalized mass is less than the square of the Planck mass. The influence of the negative energy on cosmological models of any type with and without term is investigated. It is shown that there is no singular state.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 7, pp. 17–20, July, 1980.We are very grateful to K. A. Bronnikov for valuable comments.     

Manifestation of destruction of quantum integrability with expectation and uncertainty values of quantum observables

A method to demonstrate destruction of quantum integrability is presented. The method is based on the calculation (for systems with two degrees of freedom) of the expectation and uncertainty values of energy and another quantum observable which is conservative when the system is integrable. Two kinds of avoided crossings can be shown clearly with this method.     

Scale invariance and spontaneous symmetry breaking

Spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetries is studied in theories with nonlinearly realized scale invariance. The classically sliding vacuum expectation values are fixed through quantum corrections. The anomaly of the dilatation current determines the vacuum energy density as well as the dilaton mass. The coupling of gravity to matter is modified in such a way that the cosmological constant vanishes.     

3H at Next-to-Next-to-Next-to Leading Order of the Chiral Expansion

The chiral three-nucleon force (3NF) at next-to-next-to-next-to leading order (N³LO) is used to calculate the triton wave function and the doublet nucleon–deuteron scattering length. This allows us to fix the values of the low-energy constants which are free parameters of the theory. The obtained values of these parameters, the expectation values of the kinetic energy, two- and three-body potentials and individual contributions of different parts of 3NF are given.