Order (alpha² Gamma, alpha³ Gamma) Binding Effects in Orthopositronium Decay

الأصل · EN

We present a new, simplified analysis of the low-energy electron-positron interaction, and use the resulting effective theory to calculate the binding effects that contribute to the decay rate, Gamma, of orthopositronium, through Order(alpha³ ln(alpha) Gamma). We express the total decay rate in terms of the annihilation rate for a free electron and positron at threshold, which has just recently been computed to sufficient precision. Our result corrects errors in a previous analysis.