Perturbation theory for QED bound states

A new method is presented for deriving a systematic perturbative expansion for QED bound states, which does not rely upon solving any new or old equation. The starting point is a given nonperturbative zeroth order Green's function, obtained by a suitable “relativistic dressing” of the nonrelativistic Green's function for the Schrödinger equation with Coulomb potential, which embodies the Coulombic bound states and is known. The comparison with the complete Green's function as given by standard perturbative QED gives a perturbative kernel which is then used for the expansion of the QED Green's function in terms of the given non-perturbative zeroth order Green's function.