Vacuum polarization in a one-dimensional effective quantum-electrodynamics model

Abstract

With the aim of progressing toward a practical implementation of an effective quantum-electrodynamics (QED) theory of atoms and molecules, which includes the effects of vacuum polarization through the creation of virtual electron-positron pairs but without the explicit photon degrees of freedom, we study a one-dimensional effective QED model of the hydrogen-like atom with delta-potential interactions. This model resembles the three-dimensional effective QED theory with Coulomb interactions while being substantially simpler. We provide some mathematical details about the definition of this model, calculate the vacuum-polarization density, and the Lamb-type shift of the bound-state energy, correcting and extending results of previous works. We also study the approximation of the model in a finite plane-wave basis, and in particular we discuss the basis convergence of the bound-state energy and eigenfunction, of the vacuum-polarization density, and of the Lamb-type shift of the bound-state energy. We highlight the difficulty of converging the vacuum-polarization density in a finite basis and we propose a way to improve it. The present work could give hints on how to perform similar calculations for the three-dimensional effective QED theory of atoms and molecules.