Fermi and the 4/3 problem with the classical electron model: ignored too long
5 Abraham-Lorentz derivations, 1 Fermi correction
There are 3 complete books on classical charged particles:
- Yaghjian [pdf scan 9MB]
A.D. Yaghjian.
Relativistic Dynamics of a Charged Sphere: Updating the Lorentz-Abraham
Model, 2 Editions
(Berlin: Springer, Berlin, 1992, 2006).
-
Spohn
[pdf 3MB]
H. Spohn,
Dynamics of Charged Particles and their Radiation Field
(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004).
-
Rohrlich
[djvu 5MB]
F. Rohrlich,
Classical Charged Particles
First Edition: (Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1965)
updated Third Edition: (World Scientific, Singapore, 2007).
There is a recently updated bible of Electrodynamics:
- J D Jackson
Electrodynamics
Second Edition (1975)
Third Edition (1999)
9MB DJVU file [DJVU
Windows download page] <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< this is it remo
See djvupage 282 [page 258]
Section 6.7 Poynting's Theorem and Conservation of Energy
and Momentum for a System of Charged Particles
and Electromagnetic Fields
The integral definitions of energy and momentum for any inertial observer
are crucial for interpreting the conservation of energy
among the charges and fields within a finite closed 3-volume. The problem is
when you extend the closed 3-volume out to spatial infinity,
you get something which does not quite correspond to your intuition, but
this is the way it is.
The only person who clearly understood Fermi's claimed result and reproduced his work and
related it to Kwal-Rohrlich
was Aharoni, not listed in the lengthy bibliographies of Spohn and Yaghjian,
while slighted by Rohrlich as an orphaned listing in his author index.
Much later in 1997 Kolbenstvedt rederived Fermi's result in a slightly
different way, acknowledging Fermi's work,
but this was also ignored by Spohn, Yaghjian, Rohrlich and Jackson.
Our articles explaining the
calculations and historical setting of the Fermi work:
bob jantzen website
5 Abraham-Lorentz derivations, 1 Fermi correction