Reparameterization invariance of NRQED self-energy corrections and improved theory for excited D states in hydrogenlike systems

Abstract

Canonically, the quantum electrodynamic radiative corrections in bound systems have been evaluated in photon energy regularization, i.e., using a noncovariant overlapping parameter that separates the high-energy relativistic scales of the virtual quanta from the nonrelativistic domain. Here, we calculate the higher-order corrections to the one-photon self-energy calculation with three different overlapping parameters (photon energy, photon mass and dimensional regularization) and demonstrate the reparameterization invariance of nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics (NRQED) using this particular example. We also present new techniques for the calculation of the low-energy part of this correction, which lead to results for the Lamb shift of highly excited states that are important for high-precision spectroscopy.