The absorber hypothesis of electrodynamics

Abstract

We test the absorber hypothesis of the action-at-a-distance electrodynamics for globally-bounded solutions of a finite-particle universe. We find that the absorber hypothesis forbids globally-bounded motions for a universe containing only two charged particles, otherwise the condition alone does not forbid globally-bounded motions. We discuss the implication of our results for the various forms of electrodynamics of point charges.