RADIATION REACTION ON MOVING PARTICLES IN GENERAL RELATIVITY By EIRINI MESSARITAKI A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

2003 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank Dr. Steve Detweiler, Professor of Physics at the University of Florida, who was my advisor during my graduate studies. He has always been very supportive of my work, very willing to help and extremely patient with me. I feel very lucky to have worked with him during the past 5 years. I would also like to thank Dr. Bernard Whiting for his help on writing this dissertation and for his contributions to the research. for their useful comments on the dissertation. I would also like to thank my brothers, my family and my close friends. Their help and support has always been very important and I could not have come this far without them.