Physics Department Seminar University of Alaska Fairbanks


J O U R N A L    C L U B

 

Does a uniformly accelerated point charge radiate

 
by
 
Chung-Sang Ng
Physics/GI UAF

 

ABSTRACT

To try not to cancel a Journal Club meeting, I’ll repeat a talk I gave about seven years ago. So this is mainly for students since I’m sure none of them have heard this before. It is a problem in Classical Electrodynamics and Relativity. The story started in 1921, 16 years after Einstein's paper on Special Relativity, and only 6 years after the beginning of the theory of General Relativity, a 21 year old young student, W. Pauli, published a paper reviewing both the theories of Special and General Relativity. (That paper was later published as a book: "Theory of Relativity", which you can still buy now for about $10.) He did something more than just reviewing, he provided his "personal views upon some controversial questions". One question remains controversial even now is whether a uniformly accelerated charge radiates or not. Pauli claimed it doesn't in his book, which surely attracted much opposition later. When I was a student working on my master degree, I was fascinated by this problem and did a project for my Electrodynamics course. Later when I was a PhD student, I published a paper on this problem providing my 2 cents. I’ll talk about this problem in this talk.



 

Friday, 10 February 2017

Globe Room, Elvey Building

3:45 PM