Spin-dependent correction to the relativistic-electron mass in QED in the presence of an external electric field

A new expression is found for the spin-dependent contribution Δm _s to the self-energy of an electron moving with a transverse momentum p⊥ in an electric field. The structure of an asymptotic expansion of Δm _s (r, χ) as a function of two dynamical invariants r = γ _⊥⁻² and χ = γ _⊥|ɛ|/ɛ _c (γ _⊥² ≡ 1 + p _⊥²/m ² c ² and ɛ _c ≡ m ² c ³/|e|ℏ) is clarified with the aid of this expression. The expansion of Δm _s (r, χ) can be represented in the form of a Taylor series in r, the coefficients in this series, F ₀(χ), F ₁(χ), etc., being integrals of the Mellin type. The major coefficient F ₀(χ) is universal and, in the case of an appropriate interpretation of χ, describes well-known spin-dependent corrections to the mass in three different cases of a constant external field (for r → 0). The asymptotic properties of the function F ₁(χ) are studied in detail, but only order-of-magnitude estimates are obtained for F ₂(χ) and F ₃(χ). A comparison of these contributions revealed that, in the semiclassical region χ ≪ 1, r is indeed the parameter of the aforementioned expansion, while, for χ ≫ 1, the true parameter is rχ ² ≡ β ². In particular, the anomalous magnetic moment develops, owing to F ₁(χ), a term that grows logarithmically for χ ≫ 1, but which does not violate the hierarchy of terms in the Taylor series being considered, provided that β remains smaller than unity.