Ambiguities in QED: Renormalons versus triviality

Abstract We point out that, contrary to what is believed to hold for QCD, renormalons are genuine in QED; i.e. the ambiguities which come with them do not require cancellation by hypothetical non-perturbative contributions. They are just the ambiguities characteristic of any trivial — and thus effective — theory. If QED remained an isolated theory up to an energy close to its triviality scale, these ambiguities would surely hint at new physics. This not being so, the renormalon ambiguities in QED lead to no new physics, not even to non-perturbative contributions within QED itself.