Increase of the binding energy of an electron by coupling to a photon field

Abstract

We look at an electron in the field of an arbitrary external potential $V$, such that the Schr\"odinger operator $p^2 + V$ has at least one eigenvalue, and show that by coupling to a quantized radiation field the binding energy increases, at least for small enough values of the coupling constant $\alpha$. Moreover, we provide concrete numbers for $\alpha$, the ultraviolet cut-off $\Lambda$, and the radiative correction for which our procedure works.