Acceleration-dependent self-interaction effects as a possible mechanism of inertia

Abstract

The paper pursues two aims. First, to revisit the classical electromagnetic mass theory and develop it further by making use of a corollary of general relativity - that the propagation of light in non-inertial reference frames is anisotropic. Second, to show that the same type of acceleration-dependent self-interaction effects that give rise to the inertia and mass of the classical electron appear in quantum field theory as well when the general relativistic frequency shift of the virtual quanta, mediating the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions between non-inertial particles, is taken into account. Those effects may account for the origin of inertia and mass of macroscopic objects.