Self-action of a point charge in classical electrodynamics

A direct calculation demonstrates that the causal Green function for classical equations of an electromagnetic field contains an additional singular term cancelling the divergence in the self-action of a point charge. Thus, the problem of mass renormalization is avoided. An exact relativistic expression for the self-action force is presented as a sum of two terms. The first one gives the radiation damping and the second one describes the electromagnetic component of the particle momentum depending on its velocity and acceleration. Accordingly, the work of the force also consists of two terms: the radiation energy and the electromagnetic component of the particle energy. To perform the calculations, we have to extend the radial spherical coordinate in the δ-function argument to negative values. © 1996 Plenum Publishing Corporation.