LIMITATIONS OF GAUGE INVARIANCE
LIMITATIONS OF GAUGE INVARIANCE
LIMITATIONS OF GAUGE INVARIANCE
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Furthermore…<br />
There is another set of statements that is accepted almost universally in<br />
the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) physics community, and to<br />
some extent outside that community:<br />
• A gauge transformation is a unitary transformation.<br />
• Quantum transition amplitudes are manifestly gauge invariant.<br />
Less universal, but also widespread:<br />
• The most basic approach is to formulate all problems using a scalar<br />
potential. (Within the dipole approximation, this is called the length<br />
gauge.) If a different gauge is desired, this should be obtained through a<br />
gauge transformation from the length gauge.<br />
All of the bulleted statements above are false.<br />
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