2017/11/22 by Jordan Moxon, Éanna É. Flanagan, Éanna Flanagan · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Acceleration #Body force #Center of mass (relativistic) #Classical electromagnetism #Classical mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Electromagnetic field #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Regularization (linguistics) #Spacetime #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.97.105001
published as Phys. Rev. D 97, 105001 (2018) · 31 pages, 2 figures
arxiv created 2017/11/22 · openalex publication_date 2018/05/01 · arxiv updated 2018/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
In classical electrodynamics, an accelerating charged body emits radiation and experiences a corresponding radiation-reaction force, or self-force. We extend to higher order in the total charge a previous rigorous derivation of the electromagnetic self-force in flat spacetime by Gralla, Harte, and Wald. The method introduced by Gralla, Harte, and Wald computes the self-force from the Maxwell field equations and conservation of stress-energy in a limit where the charge, size, and mass of the body go to zero, and it does not require regularization of a singular self-field. For our higher-order computation, an adjustment of the definition of the mass of the body is necessary to avoid including self-energy from the electromagnetic field sourced by the body in the distant past. We derive the evolution equations for the mass, spin, and center-of-mass position of the body through second order. We derive, for the first time, the second-order acceleration dependence of the evolution of the spin (self-torque), as well as a mixing between the extended body effects and the acceleration-dependent effects on the overall body motion.