# From quantization under external classical gauge field to a fully quantized theory

Let me take QED for example to clarify my question: The textbook-approach(at least for Peskin&Schroeder) to quantize ED is to first quantize EM field and Dirac field as free fields respectively, and then couple them together perturbatively to represent the interaction, and we will have a fully quantized theory. Here by "fully quantized" I mean both EM field and Dirac field are quantized.

On the other hand, we may quantize the Dirac field under an given external classical EM field: briefly speaking, one solves minimally coupled Dirac equation and take the solution space as 1-particle Hilbert space, and then second quantize the theory by building a Fock space based on this 1-particle space.(A more detailed description can be found in chap 10 of "the Dirac equation" by Thaller.B) Such a theory is defined non-perturbatively, and describes many-electron systems interacting with an external classical EM field but non-interacting among themselves, so in this sense it's a "better" theory than a quantized free Dirac field. However I cannot see a way to go from this theory to a fully quantized one, if there is, do we get exactly the same theory as given by the text-book approach, or possibly a better one? Any answer, comment or reference will be appreciated.

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 I noticed a possibly related comment by Xiao-Gang Wen from this post, at the bottom of the page: – Jia Yiyang Jul 8 '12 at 12:24 "There are three kinds of gauge theories: (1) Classical gauge theory where both gauge field and charged matter are treated classically. (2) fake quantum gauge theory where gauge field is treated classically and charged matter is treated quantum mechanically. (3) real quantum gauge theory where both gauge field and charged matter are treated quantum mechanically. Most papers and books deal with the fake quantum gauge theory..." – Jia Yiyang Jul 8 '12 at 12:25 Does the background field method go towards answering your question? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Background_field_method – Michael Brown Jan 3 at 15:15