  We consider a large atom with nuclear charge $Z$ described by
non-relativistic quantum mechanics with classical or quantized electromagnetic
field. We prove that the absolute ground state energy, allowing for minimizing
over all possible self-generated electromagnetic fields, is given by the
non-magnetic Thomas-Fermi theory to leading order in the simultaneous $Z\to
\infty$, $\al\to 0$ limit if $Z\al^2\leq \kappa$ for some universal $\kappa$,
where $\al$ is the fine structure constant.
