Abstract
We investigate the physics of a charged scalar particle moving in conformally flat spacetime with the conformal factor depending only on time in the framework of quantum electrodynamics (QED). In particular, we show that the radiation-reaction force derived from QED agrees with the classical counterpart in the limit using the fact that to lowest order in the charged scalar field theory with mass in conformally flat spacetime with conformal factor , which we call Model B, is equivalent to that in flat spacetime with a time-dependent mass , which we call Model A, at tree level in this limit. We also consider the one-loop QED corrections to these two models in the semiclassical approximation. We find nonzero one-loop corrections to the mass and Maxwell’s equations in Model A at order . This does not mean, however, that the corresponding one-loop corrections in Model B are nonzero because the equivalence of these models through a conformal transformation breaks down at one loop. We find that the one-loop corrections vanish in the limit in Model B.
- Received 11 March 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.79.105023
©2009 American Physical Society