Why semi-classical electrodynamics is not gauge invariant

Abstract

It is shown that in semi-classical electrodynamics, which describes how electrically charged particles move according to the laws of quantum mechanics under the influence of a prescribed classical electromagnetic field, only a restricted class of gauge transformations is allowed. This lack of full gauge invariance, in contrast to the situation in classical and quantum electrodynamics which are fully gauge invariant theories, is due to the requirement that the scalar potential in the Hamiltonian of wave mechanics represent a physical potential. Probability amplitudes and energy differences are independent of gauge within this restricted class of gauge transformation.