NRQED Lagrangian at order 1/M4

The parity and time-reversal invariant effective Lagrangian for a heavy fermion interacting with an Abelian gauge field, i.e., NRQED, is constructed through order 1/M-4. The implementation of Lorentz invariance in the effective theory becomes nontrivial at this order, and a complete solution for Wilson coefficient constraints is obtained. Matching conditions in the one-fermion sector are presented in terms of form factors and two-photon matrix elements of the nucleon. The extension of NRQED to describe interactions of the heavy fermion with a light fermion is introduced. Sample applications are discussed; these include the computation of nuclear structure effects in atomic bound states, the model-independent analysis of radiative corrections to low-energy lepton-nucleon scattering, and the study of static electromagnetic properties of nucleons. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.87.053017