Polarization Effects in the Positron Theory

Some of the consequences of the positron theory for the special case of impressed electrostatic fields are investigated. By imposing a restriction only on the maximum value of the field intensity, which must always be assumed much smaller than a certain critical value, but with no restrictions on the variation of this intensity, a formula for the charge induced by a charge distribution is obtained. The existence of an induced charge corresponds to a polarization of the vacuum, and as a consequence, to deviations from Coulomb's law for the mutual potential energy of point charges. Consequences of these deviations which are investigated are the departures from the Coulombian scattering law for heavy particles and the displacement in the energy levels for atomic electrons moving in the field of the nucleus.