Vacuum Polarization and the Electric Charge of the Positron

B. Mueller, M. H. Thoma

Published 1992-09-05, updated 1992-11-10Version 2

We show that higher-order vacuum polarization would contribute a measureable net charge to atoms, if the charges of electrons and positrons do not balance precisely. We obtain the limit $|Q_e+Q_{\bar e}| < 10^{-18} e$ for the sum of the charges of electron and positron. This also constitutes a new bound on certain violations of PCT invariance.