Inconsistency in Classical Electrodynamics*

Inconsistency in Classical Electrodynamics

I show that the standard approach to modeling phenomena involving microscopic classical electrodynamics is mathematically inconsistent. I argue that there is no conceptually unproblematic and consistent theory covering the same phenomena to which this inconsistent theory can be thought of as an approximation; and I propose a set of conditions for the acceptability of inconsistent theories. 1. I...

Frisch, Muller and Belot on an Inconsistency in Classical Electrodynamics

This paper follows up a debate as to whether classical electrodynamics is inconsistent. Mathias Frisch makes the claim in Inconsistency, Asymmetry and Non-Locality ([2005]), but this has been quickly countered by Fred Muller ([2007]) and Gordon Belot ([2007]). Here I argue that both Muller and Belot fail to connect with the background assumptions which support Frisch’s claim. Responding to Belo...

Classical Electrodynamics

Quantum-classical crossover in electrodynamics

A classical field theory is proposed for the electric current and the electromagnetic field interpolating between microscopic and macroscopic domains. It represents a generalization of the density functional for the dynamics of the current and the electromagnetic field in the quantum side of the crossover and reproduces standard classical electrodynamics on the other side. The effective action ...

Instantaneous fields in classical electrodynamics

– In this paper we express the retarded fields of Maxwell’s theory in terms of the instantaneous fields of a Galilei-invariant electromagnetic and we find the vector function χL whose spatial and temporal derivatives transform the Euclidean fields into the retarded ones. We conclude that the instantaneous fields can formally be introduced as unphysical objects into classical electrodynamics whi...