Single-Particle Electrodynamics - Assassination Science

I apologise to Dr. Geoff Taylor for never submitting the final write-up
of my first and only experimental physics project, in 1989, and promise to
recite the Particle Data Book summary tables as repentance.
I would particularly like to thank Assoc. Prof. Bill Wignall for agreeing
to talk some Quantum Mechanics with a bright-eyed student in 1987, and
for regularly deflecting me onto topics of interest and importance ever since.
I thank Veronica Pantelidis for her moral support, from the other side of
the planet, and I hope I may meet her and the two Nicks in person some day.
I thank Henry and Miriam Cieslak for being such excellent neighbours,
and especially for knocking on my door with plates of food, in the past few
weeks, when I forgot to eat.
I thank Russell Petty for keeping me sane!
To my Ph.D. supervisor, Professor Bruce McKellar, I owe an unrepayable
debt, for agreeing, in 1990, to supervise an unknown Engineering student
who had not even taken the prerequisite undergraduate course in Quantum
Mechanics. On reading this thesis, I see the products of Bruce’s guidance on
every page, and am reminded of the many long but rewarding afternoons on
which we struggled to unlock Nature’s secrets.
I must thank my various girlfriends, during this time, for reminding me
that relationships are not analytical functions of time: no matter how many
derivatives you measure, you never know what’s going to happen next.
The lifelong friendship of Roger Behrend, and the mathematical guidance
he has provided, is most deeply appreciated.
Most of all, I would like to thank my Mum, for being the best Mum in
the world.
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