Wednesday 31 October 2018

quantum field theory - Mass gap for photons


I am puzzled by the answers to the question:


What is a mass gap?


There, Ron Maimon's answer gives a clear-cut definition, which I suppose applies to any quantum field theory with Hamiltonian $H$, that the theory has a mass gap if there is a positive constant $A$ such that $$\langle \psi| H |\psi \rangle\geq \langle 0 |H | 0 \rangle +A$$ for all nonzero (normalized) $\psi$.


But then, Arnold Neumaier says


QED has no mass gap, as observable photons are massless states.


I would quite appreciate a brief explanation of this statement. The definition is concerned with the minimum possible energy for non-zero states. So I don't see why the photons having zero mass would imply the absence of a mass gap.




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