The spinor self-energy in a class of covariant gauges

Abstract

It is shown that the gauge fixing lagrangian density of the form L gf = −( 1 2 β)(ϖ·A)(ϖ 2) 2(ϖ·A) leads to a class of Landau-like gauges in which the wave function renormalization of the spinor field is one. We discuss the result in the case of spinor electrodynamics and in the case where the vector field A μ acquires mass through the Higgs mechanism. The Landau gauge result is recovered in the limit β→0. The non-abelian situation is also alluded to.