Hodge theory used to produce finite self-energy models of the electron (Q791205)

The singular point associated with a classical electric charge can be eliminated by excising this point from the manifold M of space-time points. This step renders the electric field nonsingular everywhere (and sourceless) but makes M topologically nontrivial. Also, the energy is still infinite due to the noncompactness introduced by removal of a single point. This paper investigates the possibility of directly formulating sourceless static electromagnetic fields on a topologically nontrivial space-time manifold M which is spatially compact (e.g. the static wormhole manifold \(R\times S^ 1\times S^ 2)\) so that the energy can be finite. Time remains noncompact, but this is irrelevant for static fields. It is shown that for \(M=R\times N\) (N compact) there exists a unique static field for any specified electric and magnetic charges associated with the nontrivial topology. Moreover, the symmetry of the chosen metric transfers to the electromagnetic field, enabling one to investigate the latter globally, without having to solve the equations of general relativity. The tool used for the proof is a generalization of Hodge theory, which relates a unique harmonic j-form to each element of the cohomology class \(H^ j(N,R)\). Thus the proof is essentially global, the electromagnetic case being \(j=2\). Classical models of the electron are constructed along these lines.