Dynamics of Charged Particles and their Radiation Field

Abstract

PrefaceBy intention, my project has two parts. The first one covers the classical electron theory. It is essentially self-contained and will be presented in the following chapters. 75 years after the discovery of quantum mechanics, to discuss only the classical version of the theory looks somewhat obsolete, in particular since many phenomena, like the stability of atoms, the existence of spectral lines and their life time, the binding of atoms, and many others, are described only by the quantized theory. Thus it is a necessity to discuss the quantized version of the classical models studied here. This is not quantum electrodynamics. It is the quantum theory of electrons, stable nuclei, and photons with no pair production allowed. Well said, but the quantum part turns out to be a difficult task. There is a lot of material with the mathematical physics side in flux and very active at present. Thus it remains to be seen whether the quantum part will be ever finished. In the meantime I invite the reader to comments, criticisms, and improvements on the classical part.In thank my collaborators, Sasha Komech and Markus Kunze, for their constant help and insistence. I am very grateful to Joel Lebowitz. He initiated my interest in tracer particle problems and I always wanted to apply these ideas to electrons coupled to the Maxwell field. I am indebted to F. Rohrlich for discussions and important hints on the literature. I acknowledge instructive discussions with A.

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