Unsolved Mystery: Accelerating Charges & Radiation Reaction Force

AI Thread Summary
Accelerating charges are known to radiate energy, but the radiation reaction force, which depends on the third derivative of position, becomes zero under constant acceleration. This creates a paradox where energy is radiated, yet the work done by the radiation reaction force does not account for this energy loss. The referenced graph illustrates the discrepancy between energy radiated and the work done by the radiation reaction force. The paper linked in the discussion suggests that this issue remains unresolved in physics. Overall, the conversation highlights an ongoing debate regarding the behavior of accelerating charges and the implications of radiation reaction forces.
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It is often stated that ANY accelerating charge radiates, so this includes uniformly accelerating charges. But the radiation reaction force is proportional to the THIRD derivative of x, so it vanishes when acceleration is constant. What's the deal here?

Here's a graph which supposedly shows that the energy carried away by radiation (which is proportional to acceleration squared) is different than the work done by the radiation reaction force (which is proportional to velocity times the THIRD derivative of x). What's the deal with all of this?

http://physics.fullerton.edu/~jimw/general/radreact/radfig2.gif


And here's the full paper where this graph came from:

http://physics.fullerton.edu/~jimw/general/radreact/"


It seems the paper states that this is some kind of an unsolved problem or something. Is any of this true?
 
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"It seems the paper states that this is some kind of an unsolved problem or something. Is any of this true?"

I'm not going to read the paper, but it is still an unsolved problem.
The x triple dot result is only for some special cases, not including uniform acceleration.
 
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