  The effects of physical interactions are usually incorporated into the
quantum theory by including the corresponding terms in the Hamiltonian. Here we
consider the effects of including the gravitational potential energy of massive
particles in the Hamiltonian of quantum electrodynamics. This results in a
predicted correction to the speed of light that is proportional to the fine
structure constant. The correction to the speed of light obtained in this way
depends on the gravitational potential and not the gravitational field, which
is not gauge invariant and presumably nonphysical. Nevertheless, the predicted
results are in reasonable agreement with experimental observations from
Supernova 1987a.
