On the self-force in electrodynamics and implications for gravity

Abstract

We consider the motion of charged point particles on Minkowski spacetime. The questions of whether the self-force is finite and whether mass renormalisation is necessary are discussed within three theories: In the standard Maxwell vacuum theory, in the non-linear Born-Infeld theory and in the higher-order Bopp-Podolsky theory. In a final section we comment on possible implications for the theory of the self-force in gravity.