Is it possible to calculate the spontaneous decay rate of an atom's (for sake of "simplicity" hydrogen) excited state in QED, if so how and if not why not?
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1I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because of insufficient prior research. The answer can be found in standard textbooks, and almost certainly on the Internet. – garyp Aug 08 '16 at 13:53
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1@garyp Then I really can't understand, why is this site for. If you learn enough, you can find the answer somewhere in a textbook. – peterh Aug 08 '16 at 18:32
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Quantum field theory isn't very good at describing bound states so we would not us it to calculate the lifetime of an atomic excited state. In any case there is in most cases no reason to use QFT because the non-relativistic calculation works very well. We might then use QFT to calculate the small corrections to the result we get from using standard QM.
The standard QM calculation is done using Fermi's golden rule to calculate transition probabilities. See for example How long does it take for an excited electron to return to ground state? or searching the site for Fermi's golen rule will find you many other related questions.
John Rennie
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