Electrodynamics of Radiating Charges

Abstract

The theory of electrodynamics of radiating charges is reviewed with special emphasis on the role of the Schott energy for the conservation of energy for a charge and its electromagnetic field. It is made clear that the existence of radiation from a charge is not invariant against a transformation between two reference frames that has an accelerated motion relative to each other. The questions whether the existence of radiation from a uniformly accelerated charge with vanishing radiation reaction force is in conflict with the principle of equivalence and whether a freely falling charge radiates are reviewed. It is shown that the resolution of an electromagnetic “perpetuum mobile paradox” associated with a charge moving geodetically along a circular path in the Schwarzschild spacetime requires the so-called tail terms in the equation of motion of a charged particle.