Relativistic Dynamics of A Charged Sphere Updating The Lorentz Abraham Model 3rd Edition Arthur D. Yaghjian Latest PDF 2025
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Relativistic
Dynamics
of a Charged
Sphere
Updating the Lorentz-Abraham Model
Third Edition
Relativistic Dynamics of a Charged Sphere
Arthur D. Yaghjian
Relativistic Dynamics of a
Charged Sphere
Updating the Lorentz-Abraham Model
Third Edition
Arthur D. Yaghjian
Concord, MA, USA
First edition published as Lecture Notes in Physics Monographs: Vol. 11, 1992; Second edition published
as Lecture Notes in Physics: Vol. 686, 2006
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To
LUCRETIA
Foreword
vii
Preface to the Third Edition
Some of the history has been made more accurate and some of the derivations
have been simplified and clarified in the third edition of the book. The velocity
jumps across the transition intervals, such as when the external force is first
applied and terminated, in the causal Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac equation of motion
are made explicit. A detailed three-vector exact solution to the Landau-Lifshitz
approximate equation of motion is given for the problem of an electron traveling
in a counterpropagating plane-wave laser-beam pulse. Conditions are given for the
validity of the Landau-Lifshitz solution as an accurate approximation to the Lorentz-
Abraham-Dirac equation of motion. Semi-classical analyses are used to derive the
conditions that determine the significance of quantum effects not included in the
classical equations of motion.
Informative discussions with Professor M. Vranic of the Instituto Superior
Técnico in Lisbon, Professor A. Di Piazza of the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg,
and Dr. Y. Hadad of Nutrino, as well as the encouragement and thoughtful expertise
of the Springer Senior Editor, Dr. S. Harrison, are gratefully acknowledged. Dr. A.
Nachman of the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research supported
much of the research that led to the additional material in the third edition of the
book.
Concord, MA, USA Arthur D. Yaghjian
2022
ix
Preface to the Second Edition
Chapters 1 through 6 and the Appendices in the Second Edition of the book remain
the same as in the First Edition except for the correction of a few typographical
errors, for the addition and rewording of some sentences, and for the reformatting
of some of the equations to make the text and equations read more clearly. A
convenient three-vector form of the equation of motion has been added to Chap. 7
that is used in expanded sections of Chap. 7 on hyperbolic and runaway motions,
as well as in Chap. 8. Several references and an index have also been added to the
Second Edition of the book.
The method used in Chap. 8 of the First Edition for eliminating the noncausal
pre-acceleration from the equation of motion has been generalized in the Second
Edition to eliminate pre-deceleration as well. The generalized method is applied
to obtain the causal solution to the equation of motion of a charge accelerating
in a uniform electric field for a finite time interval. Alternative derivations of the
Landau-Lifshitz approximation to the Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac equation of motion
are also given in Chap. 8 along with Spohn’s elegant solution of this approximate
equation for a charge moving in a uniform magnetic field. A necessary and sufficient
condition is found for this Landau-Lifshitz approximation to be an accurate solution
to the exact Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac equation of motion.
Many of the additions that have been made to the Second Edition of the
book have resulted from illuminating discussions with Professor W.E. Baylis of
the University of Windsor, Professor Dr. H. Spohn of the Technical University
of Munich, and Professor Emeritus F. Rohrlich of Syracuse University. Dr. A.
Nachman of the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research supported
and encouraged much of the research that led to the Second Edition of the book.
xi
Preface to the First Edition
xiii
Contents
xv
xvi Contents
The primary purpose of this work is to determine an equation of motion for the
classical Lorentz model of the electron that is consistent with causal solutions
to the Maxwell equations (with the Lorentz force), the relativistic generalization
of Newton’s second law of motion, and Einstein’s mass-energy relation. (The
latter two laws of physics were not discovered until after the original works of
Lorentz, Abraham, and Poincaré. The hope of Lorentz and Abraham for deriving
the equation of motion of an electron solely from the Maxwell equations was
not fully realized.) The work begins by reviewing the contributions of Lorentz,
Abraham, Poincaré, and Schott to this century-old problem of finding the equation
of motion of an extended electron. Their original derivations, which were based
on the Maxwell equations (with the Lorentz force) and assumed a zero bare
mass, are modified and generalized to obtain a nonzero bare mass and consistent
force and power equations of motion. By looking at the Lorentz model of the
electron as a surface-charged insulating sphere, general expressions are derived
for the binding forces that Poincaré postulated to hold the charge distribution
together. A careful examination of the classic Lorentz derivation reveals that the
self electromagnetic force must be modified during a short time interval after the
external force is first applied and after all other nonanalytic points in time of the
external force. The resulting modification to the equation of motion, although slight,
eliminates the noncausal pre-acceleration (and pre-deceleration) that has plagued
the solution to the Lorentz-Abraham equation of motion. As part of the analysis,
general momentum and energy relations are derived and interpreted physically for
the solutions to the equation of motion, including “hyperbolic” and “runaway”
solutions. Also, a stress-momentum-energy tensor that includes the binding, bare-
mass, and electromagnetic momentum-energy densities is derived for the charged
insulator model of the electron, and an assessment is made of the redefinitions of
electromagnetic momentum-energy that have been proposed in the past to obtain a
consistent equation of motion.
Many fine articles have been written on the classical theories of the electron, such
as [1–7], to complement the original works by Lorentz [8], Abraham [9], Poincaré
[10], and Schott [11]. However, in returning to the original derivations of Lorentz,
Abraham, Poincaré, and Schott, re-examining some of them in detail, modifying
them when necessary, and supplementing them with the results of special relativity
not contained explicitly in the Maxwell equations, it is possible to clarify and resolve
a number of the subtle problems that have remained with the classical theory of the
Lorentz model of the extended electron.
An underlying motivation to the present analysis is the idea that one can separate
the problem of deriving the equation of motion of the extended model of the
electron from the question of whether the model approximates an actual electron.
Hypothetically, one can enter the classical laboratory, distribute a charge e uniformly
on the surface of an insulating sphere of radius a, apply an external electromagnetic
field to the charged insulator, release it, and observe a causal motion predictable
from the relativistically covariant equations of classical physics. Moreover, the
short-range polarization forces binding the excess charge to the surface of the
insulator need not be postulated, but are derivable from the relativistic generalization
of Newton’s second law of motion applied to both the charge and insulator, and
from the requirement that the charge remains uniformly distributed on the spherical
insulator in its proper (instantaneous rest) inertial frame of reference. A summary
of the results in each of the succeeding chapters follows.
Chapter 2 introduces the original Lorentz-Abraham force and power equations
of motion for Lorentz’s relativistically rigid model of the electron moving without
rotation1 with arbitrary velocity. Lorentz derived the force equation of motion in
the instantaneous rest frame by determining the self electromagnetic force induced
by the moving charge distribution upon itself, and setting the sum of the externally
applied and self electromagnetic force equal to zero, that is, he assumed a zero “bare
mass.” Similarly, the power equation of motion can be derived by setting the sum of
the externally applied and self electromagnetic power (work done per unit time by
the forces on the charge distribution) equal to zero.
To the consternation of Abraham and Lorentz, these two equations of motion
were not consistent. In particular, the scalar product of the velocity of the charge
center with the self electromagnetic force (force equation of motion) did not equal
the self electromagnetic power (power equation of motion). Merely introducing a
nonzero bare mass into the equations of motion does not remove this inconsistency
between the force and power equations of motion. Moreover, it is shown that the
apparent inconsistency between self electromagnetic force and power is not a result
of the electromagnetic mass in the equations of motion equaling 4/3 the electrostatic
mass, nor a necessary consequence of the electromagnetic momentum-energy not
1 The work of Nodvik [12, eq. (7.28)] shows that the effect of a finite angular velocity of rotation
on the self force and power of the Lorentz model approaches zero to the order of the radius of the
charge as it approaches zero and thus classical rotational effects are of the same order as the higher
order terms neglected in the Lorentz-Abraham equations of motion.
1 Introduction and Summary of Results 3
transforming like a four-vector. The 4/3 factor occurs in both the force and power
equations of motion, (2.1) and (2.4), and it was of no concern to Abraham, Lorentz,
or Poincaré in their original works which, as mentioned above, appeared before
Einstein proposed the mass-energy relationship.
Neither the self electromagnetic force-power nor the momentum-energy trans-
forms as a four-vector. (For this reason, they are referred to herein as force-power
and momentum-energy rather than four-force and four-momentum.) However,
there are any number of force and power functions that could be added to the
electromagnetic momentum and energy that would make the total momentum-
energy (call it Gi ) transform like a four-vector, and yet not satisfy dGi /ds ui = 0,
so that the inconsistency between the force and power equations of motion would
remain. Conversely, it is possible for the proper time derivatives of momentum and
energy (force-power) to transform as a four-vector and satisfy dGi /ds ui = 0
without the momentum-energy Gi itself transforming like a four-vector. In fact,
Poincaré introduced binding forces that removed the inconsistency between the
force and power equations of motion, and restored the force-power to a four-vector,
without affecting the 4/3 factor in these equations or requiring the momentum and
energy of the charged sphere to transform as a four-vector.
The apparent inconsistency between the self electromagnetic force and power is
investigated in detail in Chap. 3 by reviewing the Lorentz derivation and rigorously
rederiving the electromagnetic force and power for a charge moving with arbitrary
velocity. For the Lorentz model of the electron moving with arbitrary velocity, one
finds that the Lorentz derivation depends in part on differentiating with respect to
time the velocity in the electromagnetic momentum and energy determined for
a charge distribution moving with constant velocity. Although Lorentz gives a
plausible argument for the validity of this procedure, the first rigorous derivation
of the self electromagnetic force and power for the Lorentz electron moving with
arbitrary velocity was given by Schott in 1912, several years after the original
derivations of Lorentz and Abraham. Because Schott’s rigorous derivation of the
electromagnetic force and power, obtained directly from the Liénard-Wiechert
potentials for an arbitrarily moving charge, is extremely involved and difficult to
repeat, a much simpler, yet rigorous derivation is provided in Appendix B.
It is emphasized in Sect. 3.1 that the self electromagnetic force and power are
equal to the internal Lorentz force and power densities integrated over the charge-
current distribution of the extended electron, and thus one has no a priori guarantee
that they will obey the same relativistic transformations as an external force and
power applied to a point mass. An important consequence of the rigorous derivations
of the electromagnetic force and power of the extended electron, with arbitrary
velocity, is that the integrated self electromagnetic force, and thus the Lorentz-
Abraham force equation of motion of the extended electron, is shown to transform
as an external force applied to a point mass. However, the rigorous derivations
also reveal that the integrated self electromagnetic power, and thus the Lorentz-
Abraham power equation of motion, for the relativistically rigid model of the
extended electron do not transform as the power delivered to a moving point mass.
This turns out to be true even when the radius of the charged sphere approaches
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