Discreteness of Point Charge in Nonlinear Electrodynamics

TL;DR

This paper explores a nonlinear electrodynamics model inspired by QED that suggests point charges are fractional and examines the behavior of two electrostatic point charges, revealing unique force interactions and field configurations.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlinear model of electrodynamics that predicts fractional point charges and analyzes the interaction and field structure of two charges within this framework.

Findings

Repulsion force vanishes when equal charges are infinitely close

Different charges still exert infinite repulsion

Point charges may be fractional, being powers of two of a fundamental charge

Abstract

We consider two point charges in electrostatic interaction between them within the framework of a nonlinear model, associated with QED, that provides finiteness of their field energy. We argue that if the two charges are equal to each other the repulsion force between them disappears when they are infinitely close to each other, but remains as usual infinite if their values are different. This implies that within any system to which such a model may be applicable the point charge is fractional, it may only be $2^n$-fold of a certain fundamental charge, n=0,1,2... We find the common field of the two charges in a dipole approximation, where the separation between them is much smaller than the observation distance.