The force on a point charge source of the classical electromagnetic field

DOI10.1103/PHYSREVD.100.065012arXiv1907.11239WikidataQ127232531 ScholiaQ127232531MaRDI QIDQ6322700FDOQ6322700

Authors: Michael K.-H. Kiessling 

Publication date: 25 July 2019

Abstract: It is shown that a well-defined expression for the total electromagnetic force $f^{em}$ on a point charge source of the classical electromagnetic field can be extracted from the postulate of total momentum conservation whenever the classical electromagnetic field theory satisfies a handful of regularity conditions. Amongst these is the generic local integrability of the field momentum density over a neighborhood of the point charge. This disqualifies the textbook Maxwell-Lorentz field equations, while the Maxwell-Bopp-Lande-Thomas-Podolsky field equations qualify, and presumably so do the Maxwell-Born-Infeld field equations. Most importantly, when the usual relativistic relation between the velocity and the momentum of a point charge with bare rest mass $m_{b}eq0$ is postulated, Newton's law $dotp=f$ with $f=f^{em}$ becomes an integral equation for the point particle's acceleration; the infamous third-order time derivative of the position which plagues the Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac equation of motion does not show up. No infinite bare mass renormalization is invoked, and no ad hoc averaging of fields over a neighborhood of the point charge. The approach lays the rigorous microscopic foundations of classical electrodynamics.

This page was built for publication: The force on a point charge source of the classical electromagnetic field

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q6322700)