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The dependence of a coupling g(μ) on the energy-scale is known as "running of the coupling". The theory of the running of couplings is given by the renormalization group , though it should be kept in mind that the renormalization group is a more general concept describing any sort of scale variation in a physical system (see the full article ...
Richard Feynman, one of the originators and early developers of the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED), referred to the fine-structure constant in these terms: There is a most profound and beautiful question associated with the observed coupling constant, e – the amplitude for a real electron to emit or absorb a real photon. It is a ...
written in terms of the fine structure constant in natural units, α = e 2 /4π. [2] This beta function tells us that the coupling increases with increasing energy scale, and QED becomes strongly coupled at high energy. In fact, the coupling apparently becomes infinite at some finite energy, resulting in a Landau pole. However, one cannot ...
The scale anomaly, which gives rise to a running coupling constant. In QED this gives rise to the phenomenon of the Landau pole. In quantum chromodynamics (QCD) this leads to asymptotic freedom. The chiral anomaly in either chiral or vector field theories with fermions. This has close connection with topology through the notion of instantons.
This series diverges asymptotically, but in quantum electrodynamics (QED) at the second order the difference from experimental data is in the order of 10 −10. This close agreement holds because the coupling constant (also known as the fine-structure constant) of QED is much less than 1. [clarification needed]
Because the theory is "sick" for any negative value of the coupling constant, the series does not converge but is at best an asymptotic series. From a modern perspective, we say that QED is not well defined as a quantum field theory to arbitrarily high energy. [30] The coupling constant runs to infinity at finite energy, signalling a Landau pole.
In classical field theory, such as gauge theory in four-dimensional spacetime, the coupling constant is a dimensionless constant. However, upon quantization, logarithmic divergences in one-loop diagrams of perturbation theory imply that this "constant" actually depends on the typical energy scale of the processes under considerations, called ...
In a theory intended to represent a physical interaction where the coupling constant is known to be non-zero, Landau poles or triviality may be viewed as a sign of incompleteness in the theory. For example, QED is usually not believed [ citation needed ] to be a complete theory on its own, because it does not describe other fundamental ...