CLOUD OF VIRTUAL PHOTONS SURROUNDING A NONRELATIVISTIC ELECTRON

A review is presented of the virtual cloud of photons surrounding a no nrelativistic electron. Two cases are considered. In the first, the el ectron is taken as bound to a proton to form a Is hydrogen atom- In th e second case the electron is considered as free. It is shown that the virtual cloud, as measured by the transverse electromagnetic energy d ensity, in the near region of the ground-state hydrogen is not influen ced by the dynamic properties of the atom and in practice it coincides with that of the free electron. The influence of the atomic eigenvalu e spectrum is evident in the far region of the atom where retardation effects play an important role. These results are discussed from a phy sical point of view.