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An accelerated electron emits photons (which once was the problem for the old atomic model because it implies the electron should spiral down on the nucleus, which it to a certain extent does in discrete steps, but it halts in the lowest available orbital). It's discussed in this question.

Bremsstrahlung (German for "deceleration radiation") occurs when a charge is decelerated. For example, a charge entering an electric field, or interacting with another electron. Which is understandable as the field around the electron undergoes a sudden change.

If we express this by means of a Feynman diagram with the time axis vertically and the space axis horizontally (a procedure which can be doubted, but defended just as well), the associated Feynman diagram is simple:

enter image description here

Do we simply add a curly external leg to an outgoing leg, corresponding to a real photon? Like we can add bubbles to them, like for the anomalous magnetic moment:

enter image description here

The right side of the diagram stays the same.

Can we, for Bremsstrahlung, just add a real external photon curly?

DanielC
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MatterGauge
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1 Answers1

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Actually, the Feynman diagram for Bremsstrahlung is that of Compton scattering with the little difference that the incoming photon at the "first" vertex is a virtual one that is generated by a nucleus the electron is scattered at. The electrons "feels" its electromagnetic field symbolized by a virtual photon in the Compton scattering Feynman diagram and emits a real photon (the Bremsstrahlung photon -- the outgoing photon) at the "second" vertex, while the electron exits. Of course corresponding higher order diagrams with loops could be also taken into account, however, their effect is according to perturbation theory minor.

Lagrangian
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