Radiation Reaction Force on a Particle

Abstract

The Abrahamn Lorentz radiation reaction force term, with da/dt, derived in text books is shown to be incomplete. We show that, with the addition of a term, the classical radiation reaction force can be generalized to the relativistic force expression. This addition is the Poynting Robertson term, seen mostly in astrophysics and usually missing from texts in electromagnetism. With this term added, it takes into account the rate of change of mass dm/dt of the particle and makes the generalization to the relativisitic formula for force very straight forward.