Gauge-independent Wigner functions. II. Inclusion of radiation reaction

Abstract

We investigate the effects of quantized radiation reaction fields on the motion of a charged particle using the gauge-independent Wigner operator (GIWO) and gauge-independent Wigner function (GIWF) introduced earlier [Phys. Rev. A 33, 2913 (1986)]. To complement the equation of motion of the GIWO, the Heisenberg equations of motion of the quantized electromagnetic fields are solved within the Markov approximation. After considering the operator orderings and orders of magnitude of the radiation reaction terms, we eliminate the quantum fields from the evolution equation of the GIWO, and obtain for the GIWF a closed equation containing relaxation terms. As an example of the formalism we derive a Fokker-Planck equation (FPE) for the GIWF of a particle in a constant magnetic field. To the order \ensuremath{\Elzxh} $^{0}$ the classical radiation damping ensues, and the first quantum correction proportional to \ensuremath{\Elzxh} emerges as diffusion. The diffusion operator turns out to be indefinite and the FPE consequently defies our attempts at a complete analysis, but we demonstrate that at least the coherent states constructed from the Landau levels exhibit a manifestly physical time evolution under the FPE. We point out that the GIWF calculated with quantized electromagnetic fields is divergent even if the fields are in the vacuum state, and suggest that the GIWF should be associated with the particle state by ignoring the quantized fields altogether.