2013/06/17 by G. Bauer, Gernot Bauer, Dirk-André Deckert +3
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical electromagnetism #Feynman diagram #Particle (ecology) #Point (geometry) #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Radiation #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Work (physics) #hep-th #math-ph #math.MP #physics.class-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10955-013-0837-2
arxiv created 2013/06/17 · openalex publication_date 2013/09/11 · arxiv updated 2015/06/16 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The direct interaction theory of electromagnetism, also known as Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics, is often misinterpreted and found unappealing because of its reference to the absorber and, more importantly, to the so-called absorber condition. Here we remark that the absorber condition is indeed questionable and presumably not relevant for the explanation of irreversible radiation phenomena in our universe. What is relevant and deserves further scrutiny is the emergent effective description of a test particle in an environment. We therefore rephrase what we consider the relevant calculation by Wheeler and Feynman and comment on the status of the theory.