Frictional damping in radiative electrodynamics and its scaling to macroscopic systems

Abstract

Radiation force in Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac equation is revisited for possible signature of irreversible action in the dynamics. The analysis shows that the classical electron can dissipate out a certain fraction of field energy that distinguishes itself from the well known Larmor radiation loss. The thermal power loss is shown to follow bi-quadratic acceleration functionality, which is akin to the characteristics of Hawking-Unruh radiation emission from warm surrounding field of a non-inertial observer. Reversibility in nonstationary evolution is possible at the expense of power from concerned external field. By revealing nonlocal mitigation characteristics in nonstationary evolutions, a measure of dissipative relaxation in the radiative electrodynamics is worked out to compare the two distinctly different modes of energy losses. The measure is shown to be applicable uniquely in all scales of externally perturbed systems undergoing nonstationary dynamics, and is used as a common thread to explain frictional contributions of phonons and electrons reported for metals in superconductive phase transitions. Key words: Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac equation, radiation force, Hawking-Unruh radiation, frictional dissipation.