The Lorentz-Dirac Equation and the Physical Meaning of the Maxwell's Fields

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new classical model of spacetime that resolves the inconsistencies of classical electrodynamics by eliminating field singularities and reinterpreting electromagnetic fields as fluxes of classical photons, invalidating the Lorentz-Dirac equation.

Contribution

It introduces a covariant spacetime model that removes singularities and causality issues, redefining electromagnetic fields as photon fluxes and challenging the Lorentz-Dirac equation.

Findings

No field singularity for point electrons

Elimination of causality violations

Reinterpretation of fields as classical photon fluxes

Abstract

Classical Electrodynamics is not a consistent theory because of its field inadequate behaviour in the vicinity of their sources. Its problems with the electron equation of motion and with non-integrable singularity of the electron self field and of its stress tensor are well known. These inconsistencies are eliminated if the discrete and localized (classical photons) character of the electromagnetic interaction is anticipatively recognized already in a classical context. This is possible, in a manifestly covariant way, with a new model of spacetime structure, shown in a previous paper $^{1}$, that invalidates the Lorentz-Dirac equation. For a point classical electron there is no field singularity, no causality violation and no conflict with energy conservation in the electron equation of motion. The electromagnetic field must be re-interpreted in terms of average flux of classical photons. Implications of a singularity-free formalism to field theory are discussed.