The simplest description of charge propagation in a strong background

Abstract

Exploiting the gauge freedom associated with the Volkov description of a charge propagating in a plane wave background, we identify a new type of gauge choice which significantly simplifies the theory. This allows us to develop a compact description of the propagator for both scalar and fermionic matter, in a circularly polarised background. It is shown that many of the usually observed structures are gauge artefacts. We then analyse the full ultraviolet behaviour of the one-loop corrections for such charges. This enables us to identify and contrast the different renormalisation prescriptions needed for both types of matter.

Comments: 37 pages