We discuss the construction of Maxwellian electrodynamics in 2 + 1 dimensions and some of its applications. Special emphasis is given to the problem of the retarded potentials and radiation, where substantial differences with respect to the usual three-dimensional case arise. These stem from the general form of the solutions of the wave equation in two dimensions, which we discuss using the Green's function method. We believe the topics presented here could be stimulating additions to an advanced electrodynamics course at the undergraduate level.

We use rational approximants to study missing higher orders in the massless scalar-current quark correlator. We predict the yet unknown six-loop coefficient of its imaginary part, related to Γ(H → b$$ \overline{b} $$ b ¯ ), to be c5 = −6900 ± 1400. With this result, the perturbative series becomes almost insensitive to renormalization scale variations and the intrinsic QCD truncation uncertainty is tiny. This confirms the expectation that higher-order loop computations for this quantity will not be required in the foreseeable future, as the uncertainty in Γ(H → b$$ \overline{b} $$ b ¯ ) will remain largely dominated by the Standard Model parameters.

We employ Padé approximants in the study of the analytic structure of the four-dimensional SU(2) Landau-gauge gluon and ghost propagators in the infrared regime. The approximants, which are model independent, serve as fitting functions for the lattice data. We carefully propagate the uncertainties due to the fitting procedure, taking into account all possible correlations. For the gluon-propagator data, we confirm the presence of a pair of complex poles at $$ {p}_{\textrm{pole}}^2 $$ p pole 2 = [(−0.37 ± 0.05stat± 0.08sys) ± i (0.66 ± 0.03stat± 0.02sys)] GeV2, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. The existence of this pair of complex poles, already hinted upon in previous works, is thus put onto a firmer basis, thanks to the model independence and to the careful error propagation of our analysis. For the ghost propagator, the Padés indicate the existence of a single pole at p2 = 0, as expected. In this case, our results also show evidence of a branch cut along the negative real axis of p2. This is corroborated with another type of approximant, the D-Log Padés, which are better suited to studying functions with a branch cut and are applied here for the first time in this context. Due to particular features and limited statistics of the gluon-propagator data, our analysis is inconclusive regarding the presence of a branch cut in the gluon case.