TECHNIQUES IN ANALYTIC LAMB SHIFT CALCULATIONS

Abstract

Quantum electrodynamics has been the first theory to emerge from the ideas of regularization and renormalization, and the coupling of the fermions to the virtual excitations of the electromagnetic field. Today, bound-state quantum electrodynamics provides us with accurate theoretical predictions for the transition energies relevant to simple atomic systems, and steady theoretical progress relies on advances in calculational techniques, as well as numerical algorithms. In this brief review, we discuss one particular aspect connected with the recent progress: the evaluation of relativistic corrections to the one-loop bound-state self-energy in a hydrogenlike ion of low nuclear charge number, for excited non-S states, up to the order of α(Zα)6 in units of the electron mass. A few details of calculations formerly reported in the literature are discussed, and results for 6F, 7F, 6G and 7G states are given.