Episode 158: Quantum Electodynamics Part 1

The Science of Everything Podcast

James Fodor

Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Science

4.8 • 819 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A detailed look into the physics and mathematics of quantum electrodynamics, the theory of how light and matter interact. We discuss the generalisation of the Schrodinger equation to the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations, and howw these describe the propogation of light and fermions respectively. We then consider the process of computing transition probabilities between quantum states, including the S matrix and perturbation theory, and Wick's theorem. Recommended pre-listening is Episode 85: Introduction to Quantum Field Theory. If you enjoyed the podcast please consider supporting the show by making a PayPal donation or becoming a Patreon supporter. https://www.patreon.com/jamesfodor https://www.paypal.me/ScienceofEverything

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, wow, oh, oh, whoa, oh, wow.
0:13.0	Oh, wow.
0:15.0	Oh, wow. Hello, you're listening to The Science of Everything podcast, episode 158, quantum electrodynamics.
0:40.9	I'm your host, James Vodor.
0:43.1	In today's episode, we are going to discuss the quantum field theory of quantum electrodynamics, or QED, as it's often called.
0:51.0	So this theory describes the relativistic interactions between light and ordinary matter,
0:58.0	so that's like electrons and similar types of particles.
1:03.0	This episode follows on from one I did quite a few years ago now on an introduction to quantum field theory. So that's the recommended
1:11.7	pre-listening episode 85 introduction to quantum field theory. So that was an introductory conceptual
1:17.2	overview of quantum field theory. This episode is going to be building on that and we'll review some of the
1:23.4	concepts, but you should really listen to that first or have some background in quantum field
1:27.4	theory to appreciate what we're going to be discussing today. So here we're concepts but you should really listen to that first or have some background in quantum field theory
1:28.3	to appreciate what we're going to be discussing today. So here we're going to go through the
1:32.5	mathematics and the formalism in much more detail and I'm going to discuss particularly how we use
1:39.4	the formalism including Feynman diagrams to calculate experimentally measurable quantities in QED.
1:48.0	This episode will also form the basis for a subsequent episode, which hopefully will come out within the next few months,
1:54.0	where we'll talk about the standard model. So we'll look at other interactions beyond.
1:58.0	So as I said, Recommended-listing is episode 85 on introduction
2:02.9	to quantum field theory. The two episodes immediately prior to that 83 and 84, advanced quantum
2:07.5	mechanics would also be useful. I mean, they're in turn prerequisites for 85. So hopefully you'll
2:12.0	listen to that first. So just be warned, this is going to be a more technical episode.
2:16.5	And prerequisites will be important here. So, for example, the first thing I is going to be a more technical episode, and prerequisites will be important
	...

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