On Back-reaction in Special Relativity

Abstract

Back-reaction of fields plays an important role in the generation of particle masses and the mass-energy equivalence of special relativity, but the most natural demonstrations using classical models result in apparent errors such as the notorious "4/3" problem. Here we discuss the resolution of these discrepancies within the underlying atomic description of matter, with the aim of encouraging classroom discussion of back-reaction and its connection to relativistic effects.

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