Coulomb's Law at Very Short Distance Scales

[Djinn]

I read in the Feynman Lectures, section 5-8 in Volume 2, that Coulomb's law may begin to break down at distance scales shorter than 10^-14 cm.

Feynman says that, at the time of his lecture, the question was still open. Does anyone have any new information on this question?

Thanks,

Djinn

 

[Bob S]

Coulomb's 1/r² Law breaks down at distances shorter than an electron Compton wavelength (~3.8 x 10^-11 cm) due to charge renormalization (Uehling equation). This renormalization has been known since about 1935. Are you talking about something else?
Bob S

 

[DaTario]

Is there a simple explanation to this break down?



DaTario

 

[Bob S]

Is there a simple explanation to this break down?

See
http://rparticle.web-p.cisti.nrc.ca...=cjp&volume=84&year=2006&issue=2&msno=p06-010
Also see
E. A. Uehling, Phys. Rev. 48, 55 (1935).