Binding energy for hydrogen-like atoms in the Nelson model without cutoffs

Abstract

In the Nelson model particles interact through a scalar massless field. For hydrogen-like atoms there is a nucleus of infinite mass and charge $Ze$, $Z > 0$, fixed at the origin and an electron of mass $m$ and charge $e$. This system forms a bound state with binding energy $E_{\rm bin} = me^4Z^2/2$ to leading order in $e$. We investigate the radiative corrections to the binding energy and prove upper and lower bounds which imply that $ E_{\rm bin} = me^4 Z^2/2 + c_0 e^6 + \Ow(e^7 \ln e)$ with explicit coefficient $c_0$ and independent of the ultraviolet cutoff. $c_0$ can be computed by perturbation theory, which however is only formal since for the Nelson Hamiltonian the smallest eigenvalue sits exactly at the bottom of the continuous spectrum.