Single-Particle Electrodynamics - Assassination Science

Chapter 6
Radiation Reaction
According to our fundamental assumptions, each element of volume of
an electron experiences a force due to the field produced by the particle
itself, and the question now arises whether there will be any resultant
force acting on the electron as a whole.
—— H. A. Lorentz (1906) [137]
6.1 Introduction
If a pointlike charged particle is accelerated, and hence emits electromagnetic
radiation, who pays for the mechanical energy contained in the radiated
fields? Clearly, the particle itself has to pay; there is no one else around to
pick up the bill. But if the point charge is paying out hard-earned mechanical
energy, it must be at the expense of its kinetic energy—the particle having
no other negotiable currency in its possession. It therefore effectively has a
“dragging” force applied to it, the reaction of its own emitted radiation.
As such, the logic of this argument is easy to understand. To figure out
what the radiation reaction force is, we need simply invoke the methods of
Sherlock Holmes: whatever mechanical energy the radiation field eventually
flees with must be the kinetic energy lost by the particle.
But this situation is not entirely satisfactory. Firstly, if we concentrate
our attention on only the radiation fields (i.e., those that escape to infinity,
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