Motion of Electron with Radiation Damping and Boundary Conditions

Abstract

The classical equation of motion of an electron with radiation damping is investigated. It is shown that a physically reasonable solution satisfying the given initial conditions can be obtained (i.e., the Cauchy problem formulated) only in the absence of radiation damping. On the other hand, once the radiation damping is taken into account, a boundary value problem arises and initial and final conditions must be prescribed. In conclusion, a comparison of our results and those of Schwartz is given.