Real and virtual photons in an external constant electromagnetic field of most general form

The photon behavior in an arbitrary superposition of constant magnetic and electric fields is considered on most general grounds basing on the first principles like Lorentz- gauge- charge- and parity-invariance. We make model- and approximation-independent, but still rather informative, statements about the behavior that the requirement of causal propagation prescribes to massive and massless branches of dispersion curves, and describe the way the eigenmodes are polarized. We find, as a consequence of Hermiticity in the transparency domain, that adding a smaller electric field to a strong magnetic field in parallel to the latter causes enhancement of birefringence. We find the magnetic field produced by a point electric charge far from it (a manifestation of magneto-electric phenomenon). We establish degeneracies of the polarization tensor that (under special kinematic conditions) occur due to space-time symmetries of the vacuum left after the external field is imposed.

Convexity of effective Lagrangian in nonlinear electrodynamics as derived from causality

In nonlinear electrodynamics, by implementing the causality principle as the requirement that the group velocity of elementary excitations over a background field should not exceed unity, and the unitarity principle as the requirement that the residue of the propagator should be nonnegative, we find restrictions on the behavior of massive and massless dispersion curves and establish the convexity of the effective Lagrangian on the class of constant fields, also the positivity of all characteristic dielectric and magnetic permittivity constants. Violation of the general principles by the one-loop approximation in QED at exponentially large magnetic field is analyzed resulting in complex energy tachyons and super-luminal ghosts that signal the instability of the magnetized vacuum. General grounds for kinematical selection rules in the process of photon splitting/merging are discussed.

Modified Coulomb Law in a Strongly Magnetized Vacuum

We study electric potential of a charge placed in a strong magnetic field B>>4.4x10^{13}G, as modified by the vacuum polarization. In such field the electron Larmour radius is much less than its Compton length. At the Larmour distances a scaling law occurs, with the potential determined by a magnetic-field-independent function. The scaling regime implies short-range interaction, expressed by Yukawa law. The electromagnetic interaction regains its long-range character at distances larger than the Compton length, the potential decreasing across the magnetic field faster than along. Correction to the nonrelativistic ground-state energy of a hydrogenlike atom is found. In the infinite-magnetic-field limit the modified potential becomes the Dirac delta-function plus a regular background. With this potential the ground-state energy is finite - the best pronounced effect of the vacuum polarization.