Physical particles of the massive Schwinger model

Abstract

The massive Schwinger model is considered in the infinite momentum frame. By assuming its physical particles consist of two fermion bound states, we compute a spectrum. For fermions with large bare masses, the method is reliable. For low-mass fermions, we find we must include states of higher fermion number to adequately describe excited states of the fundamental boson of the theory. We do this for the scalar state in the limit of small bare fermion mass. This representation of the theory provides a unified treatment of both the weak and strong coupling limits, remaining in the fermion representation throughout. We have checked our numerical results with exact calculations wherever possible, and find good agreement.