Classical Electromagnetism as a Consequence of Coulomb's Law, Special Relativity and Hamilton's Principle and its Relationship to Quantum Electrodynamics
Abstract
Description
It is demonstrated how all the mechanical equations of classical electrodynamics (CEM) may be derived from only Coulomb's inverse square force law, special relativity and Hamilton's Principle. The instantaneous nature of the Coulomb force in the centre-of-mass frame of two interacting charged objects, mediated by the exchange of space-like virtual photons, is predicted by QED. The interaction Lagrangian of QED is shown to be identical, in the appropriate limit, to the potential energy term in the Lorentz-invariant Lagrangian of CEM. A comparison is made with the Feynman-Wheeler action-at-a-distance formulation of CEM.
32 pages, 2 figures. It is found that electromagnetic forces between two charged objects are transmitted instantaneously in their common C.M. frame. This version has some typos removed and minor text improvements. V4 mentions electrodynamic action-at-distance experiments. V5 includes some text revisions and additions included before publication in Physica Scripta
32 pages, 2 figures. It is found that electromagnetic forces between two charged objects are transmitted instantaneously in their common C.M. frame. This version has some typos removed and minor text improvements. V4 mentions electrodynamic action-at-distance experiments. V5 includes some text revisions and additions included before publication in Physica Scripta