How are the retarded and advanced L-W EM potentials interpreted in QFT?
From john mcandrew@21:1/5 to All on Fri May 6 19:43:26 2022
Before QFT was developed in its current form, the Lienard-Wiechert (LW) potentials were physically interpreted as diverging or converging from/upon an electric charge q in the retarded and advanced cases respectively. How has this picture changed
compared to today; given that the electron is considered to be an excitation of an electron field, a photon an excitation of the electromagnetic field?
In particular, are the electric charges still considered sources/sinks of the retarded/advanced LW potentials in today's models of CED?