On Irreversibility and Radiation in Classical Electrodynamics of Point Particles

• DOI: 10.1007/s10955-013-0837-2
• Publication Date: 2013-09-11T11:02:24Z
• Authors: Gernot Bauer; Dirk-André Deckert; Detlef Dürr; Günter Hinrichs
• Keywords: High Energy Physics - Theory; High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th); Classical Physics (physics.class-ph); FOS: Physical sciences; Physics - Classical Physics; Mathematical Physics (math-ph); 0101 mathematics; 01 natural sciences; Mathematical Physics

The direct interaction theory of electromagnetism, also known as Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics, is often misinterpreted and found unappealing because of its reference to the absorber and, more importantly, to the so-called absorber condition. Here we remark that the absorber condition is indeed questionable and presumably not relevant for the explanation of irreversible radiation phenomena in our universe. What is relevant and deserves further scrutiny is the emergent effective description of a test particle in an environment. We therefore rephrase what we consider the relevant calculation by Wheeler and Feynman and comment on the status of the theory.