Volodymyr Tretyak

Radiation Reaction in Classical Field Theory: Basics, Concepts, Methods Volodymyr Tretyak

Studies of the classical theory of charged particles and their radiation initiated by Lorentz and Abraham have attracted our attention over a century. Nevertheless, the correct equation to describe the motion of a point charged particle is still a matter of controversy. And what about a charge ``living?? inside Flatland, a hypothetical world of two spatial dimensions? What is the equation of motion of a point charge in six dimensions? This book provides a self-contained and systematic introduction to problems of radiation and radiation reaction in classical field theory. Besides conventional electrodynamics in four dimensions (one time dimension and three spatial ones), we consider exotic worlds of dimensions other than four which arise in various research areas, e. g. in string theory, physics of graphene, dynamics of superfluid 4He film etc. Thorough analysis is given to the radiation phenomena and charges? equations of motions where the radiation reaction is taken into account. The intended audience is physicist who works in relative fields or graduate student who wants a short exposition of classical electrodynamics in the language of coordinate-free differential geometry.