Equivalence of the velocity and length gauge perturbation series

Abstract

We derive a "master" perturbation expansion for the quantum transition amplitude in a light field between the field-free initial and final atomic states in the minimal-coupling (MC) "velocity" gauge. The result is used to prove that the traditional "velocity" and "length" gauge perturbation series are equivalent infinite series representations or branches of the same amplitude function, that are equal but in a common domain of convergence (if it exists). More generally, we show that they constitute only two members of a one-parameter family of infinitely many branches of the given transition amplitude.