Regularization-independent study of renormalized nonperturbative quenched QED

Abstract

A recently proposed regularization-independent method is used for the first time to solve the renormalized fermion Schwinger-Dyson equation numerically in quenched four-dimensional QED. The Curtis-Pennington vertex is used to illustrate the technique and to facilitate comparison with previous calculations which used the alternative regularization schemes of modified ultraviolet cutoff and dimensional regularization. Our new results are in excellent numerical agreement with these, and so we can now conclude with confidence that there is no residual regularization dependence in these results. Moreover, from a computational point of view the regularization independent method has enormous advantages, since all integrals are absolutely convergent by construction, and so do not mix small and arbitrarily large momentum scales. We analytically predict power law behavior in the asymptotic region, which is confirmed numerically with high precision. The successful demonstration of this efficient new technique opens the way for studies of unquenched QED to be undertaken in the near future.