Causality and Self-consistency in Classical Electrodynamics

1996/05/02 by Manoelito M. de Souza, de Souza, Manoelito M.
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Geophysics and Sensor Technology #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/9605014

openalex publication_date 1996/05/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We present a pedagogical review of old inconsistencies of Classical Electrodynamics and of some new ideas that solve them. Problems with the electron equation of motion and with the non-integrable singularity of its self-field energy tensor are well known. They are consequences, we show, of neglecting terms that are null off the charge world-line but that give a non null contribution on its world-line. The electron self-field energy tensor is integrable without the use of any kind of renormalization; there is no causality violation and no conflict with energy conservation in the electron equation of motion, when its meaning is properly considered.

Citations

• Classical Electrodynamics

Related

• Electrodynamics Classical Inconsistencies
• Could quantum mechanics, and even gravity, be all about a correct resolution of the classical self-force problem?
• Eliminating Infinite Self-Energies From Classical Electrodynamics
• The Lorentz-Dirac Equation and the Physical Meaning of the Maxwell's Fields
• The self-energy of the electron: a quintessential problem in the development of QED