Dynamical mass generation in QED with magnetic fields: arbitrary field strength and coupling constant

Understand

We study the dynamical generation of masses for fundamental fermions in quenched quantum electrodynamics, in the presence of magnetic fields of arbitrary strength, by solving the Schwinger-Dyson equation (SDE) for the fermion self-energy in the rainbow approximation.

• We employ the Ritus eigenfunction formalism which provides a neat solution to the technical problem of summing over all Landau levels.
• It is well known that magnetic fields catalyze the generation of fermion mass m for arbitrarily small values of electromagnetic coupling \alpha.
• For intense fields it is also well known that m \propto \sqrt eB.