Extended-body approach to the electromagnetic self-force in curved spacetime

We study the classical electrodynamics of extended bodies. Currently, there is no self-consistent dynamical theory of such bodies in the literature. Electromagnetic energy-momentum is not conserved in the presence of charge and some addition is required. The only somewhat suitable addition found to date are point charges. These suffer from infinite self-energy, requiring some renormalization procedure, and perturbative methods to account for radiation. We review the history t...

For the rigid, nonrotating motion of an extended charge in an arbitrary electromagnetic field, an equation of motion is derived by Lorentz-invariantly calculating the 4-Lorentz force = external 4-force + 4-self-force, acting upon the charge. The equation of motion is invariant under any full Poincare transformation. It is a differential-integral equation for the particle's 4-centre in Minkowski space as a function of proper time. The twofold proper time integrated form of...

In classical electrodynamics, an accelerating charged body emits radiation and experiences a corresponding radiation-reaction force, or self force. We extend to higher order in the total charge a previous rigorous derivation of the electromagnetic self force in flat spacetime by Gralla, Harte, and Wald. The method introduced by Gralla, Harte, and Wald computes the self force from the Maxwell field equations and conservation of stress-energy in a limit where the charge, size, ...

We consider a scalar charge travelling in a curved background spacetime. We calculate the quasi-local contribution to the scalar self-force experienced by such a particle following a geodesic in a general spacetime. We also show that if we assume a massless field and a vacuum background spacetime, the expression for the self-force simplifies significantly. We consider some specific cases whose gravitational analog are of immediate physical interest for the calculation of radi...

The motion of sufficiently small body in general relativity should be accurately described by a geodesic. However, there should be ``gravitational self-force'' corrections to geodesic motion, analogous to the ``radiation reaction forces'' that occur in electrodynamics. It is of considerable importance to be able to calculate these self-force corrections in order to be able to determine such effects as inspiral motion in the extreme mass ratio limit. However, severe difficulti...

A problem of self-energy and self-force for a charged point-like particle in a higher dimensional homogeneous gravitational field is considered. We study two cases, when a particle has usual electric charge and a case when it has a scalar charge, which is a source of a scalar massless minimally coupled field. We assume that a particle is at rest in the gravitational field, so that its motion is not geodesic and it has an acceleration a directed from the horizon. The self-ener...

A non-perturbative formalism is developed that simplifies the understanding of self-forces and self-torques acting on extended scalar charges in curved spacetimes. Laws of motion are locally derived using momenta generated by a set of generalized Killing fields. Self-interactions that may be interpreted as arising from the details of a body's internal structure are shown to have very simple geometric and physical interpretations. Certain modifications to the usual definition ...

This article serves as a pedagogical introduction to the problem of motion in classical field theories. The primary focus is on self-interaction: How does an object's own field affect its motion? General laws governing the self-force and self-torque are derived using simple, non-perturbative arguments. The relevant concepts are developed gradually by considering motion in a series of increasingly complicated theories. Newtonian gravity is discussed first, then Klein-Gordon th...

We consider the equation of motion of a charged particle or a charged compact object in curved space-time, under the reaction of electromagnetic radiation and also consider a physical situation such that the charged particle or compact object emits gravitational radiation, thereby gravitational radiation reaction also acts on it. We investigate the effect of this metric perturbation i.e. the gravitational radiation on the electromagnetic self-force. We show that, besides th...

We study the self-force acting on a static charged point-like particle near a Schwarzschild black hole. We obtain the point-like particle as a limit of a spacetime describing a big neutral black hole with a small charged massive object nearby. The massive object is modeled by a black hole or a naked singularity. In this fully interacting system the massive object is supported above the black hole by a strut. Such a strut has a non-zero tension which corresponds to the externa...