Radiation reaction from electromagnetic fields in the neighbourhood of a point charge

Abstract

From the expression for the electromagnetic field in the neighborhood of a point charge we determine the rate of electromagnetic momentum flow, calculated using the Maxwell stress tensor, across a surface surrounding the charge. From that we derive for a `point charge' the radiation reaction formula, which turns out to be proportional to the first time-derivative of the acceleration of the charge, identical to the expression for the self-force, hitherto obtained in the literature from the detailed mutual interaction between constituents of a small charged sphere. We then use relativistic transformations to arrive at a generalized formula for radiation reaction for a point charge undergoing a relativistic motion.

12 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Am. J. Phy

References in corpus (2)

• A Rigorous Derivation of Electromagnetic Self-force
• Poynting flux in the neighbourhood of a point charge in arbitrary motion and the radiative power losses

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Radiation Damping of a Polarizable Particle
• Disparities of Larmor's/Liénard's formulations with special relativity and energy-momentum conservation
• Discrepancy between power radiated and the power loss due to radiation reaction for an accelerated charge
• A discontinuity in the electromagnetic field of a uniformly accelerated charge
• Reply to comment on `Poynting flux in the neighbourhood of a point charge in arbitrary motion and the radiative power losses'
• Implications of a non-zero Poynting flux at infinity sans radiation reaction for a uniformly accelerated charge