Abstract

Scattering states in quantum electrodynamics can not be represented in Fock space (i.e., as states with finitely many incoming and outgoing free photons), since most collisions involve the emission of infinitely many soft photons. At present, there exist two alternative proposals for an appropriately modified structure of the asymptotic state space of quantum electrodynamics. According to the “infraparticle” proposal, each charged particle would be accompanied by an appropriate cloud of infinitely many soft photons, whereas according to the “infravacuum” proposal these clouds would be replaced by a common soft photon background. The second (less popular) idea is illustrated and motivated here by simple model calculations