Two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian for the time-symmetric two-body problem of the relativistic action-at-a-distance electrodynamics

TL;DR

This paper derives a Hamiltonian for the time-symmetric relativistic two-electron problem, enabling explicit canonical transformations and numerical orbit calculations, and proposes a basis for quantization of this complex system.

Contribution

It introduces a novel implicit Hamiltonian formulation for the relativistic two-body problem with explicit Lorentz transformation properties.

Findings

Hamiltonian formulated in implicit form without power expansions

Numerical calculation of orbits at low energies

Proposes a method for canonical quantization of the system

Abstract

We find a two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian for the time-symmetric problem of straight line motion of two electrons in direct relativistic interaction. This time-symmetric dynamical system appeared 100 years ago and it was popularized in the 1940s by the work of Wheeler and Feynman in electrodynamics, which was left incomplete due to the lack of a Hamiltonian description. The form of our Hamiltonian is such that the action of a Lorentz transformation is explicitly described by a canonical transformation (with rescaling of the evolution parameter). The method is closed and defines the Hamiltonian in implicit form without power expansions. We outline the method with an emphasis on the physics of this complex conservative dynamical system. The Hamiltonian orbits are calculated numerically at low energies using a self-consistent steepest-descent method (a stable numerical method that chooses only the nonrunaway solution). The two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian suggests a simple prescription for the canonical quantization of the relativistic two-body problem.