RELATIVISTIC QUANTUM DYNAMICS: A Non-Traditional Perspective on Space, Time, Particles, Fields, and Action-at-a-Distance

This book is an attempt to build a consistent relativistic quantum theory of interacting particles. In the first part of the book “Quantum electrodynamics” we present traditional views on theoretical foundations of particle physics. Our discussion proceeds systematically from the principle of relativity and postulates of measurements to the renormalization in quantum electrodynamics. In the second part of the book “The quantum theory of particles” this traditional approach is reexamined. We find that formulas of special relativity should be modified to take into account inter-particle interactions. We also suggest to reinterpret quantum field theory in the language of physical “dressed” particles. In this new formulation the fundamental objects are particles rather than fields. This approach eliminates the need for renormalization and opens up a new way for studying dynamical and bound state properties of quantum interacting systems. The developed theory is applied to realistic physical objects and processes including the hydrogen atom, the decay law of moving unstable particles, the dynamics of interacting charges, relativistic and quantum gravitational effects. These results force us to take a fresh look at some core issues of modern particle theories, in particular, the Minkowski space-time unification, the role of quantum fields and renormalization, and the alleged impossibility of action-at-a-distance. A new perspective on these issues is suggested that can help to solve the biggest problem of modern theoretical physics – a consistent unification of relativity and quantum mechanics.