GAUGE INVARIANCE AND MASS IN SCALAR ELECTRODYNAMICS

Schwinger has conjectured that zero mass may be suppressed from the physical spectrum of an Abelian, neutral vector gauge field if the current-vector coupling is sufficiently strong. An attempt is made to verify this by direct calculation in scalar electrodynamics. The calculation is based on a self-consistent approach to strong coupling in spinor electrodynamics proposed by Johnson. No evidence is found in support of Schwinger's conjecture within the ladder approximation for the one- and two-photon emission vertices. © 1969 The American Physical Society.