Classical theory of radiating electrons
Classical theory of radiating electrons
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DOI：
10.1098/rspa.1938.0124
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发表时间：
1938-08-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Dirac, PAM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dirac, PAM
洛伦兹模型认为电子是一个带电的小球，由于其周围电场的能量而具有质量。在电磁场变化不太快、电子加速度不太大的特定问题领域，洛伦兹模型在解释电子的运动和辐射方面被证明是非常有价值的。如果不进一步假设电子上的电荷相互作用的力，它就不会超出这个范围。还没有发现引入这种进一步假设的自然方法，洛伦兹模型似乎已经达到了它的用处的极限，在我们取得进一步进展之前必须放弃。洛伦兹电子模型中最吸引人的观点之一，即所有质量都是电磁起源的观点，目前看来是错误的，原因有两个。首先，中子的发现为我们提供了一种很难相信具有电磁性质的质量形式。第二，我们有正电子理论--据我们所知，这是一个与实验相一致的理论--在这个理论中，电子质量的正值和负值起着对称的作用。这与电磁学的质量观念是不相符的，电磁学的质量观念坚持所有的质量都是正的，即使在抽象理论中也是如此。
The Lorentz model of the electron as a small sphere charged with electricity, possessing mass on account of the energy of the electric field around it, has proved very valuable in accounting for the motion and radiation of electrons in a certain domain of problems, in which the electromagnetic field does not vary too rapidly and the accelerations of the electrons are not too great. Beyond this domain it will not go unless supplemented by further assumptions about the forces that hold the charge on an electron together. No natural way of introducing such further assumptions has been discovered, and it seems that the Lorentz model has reached the limit of its usefulness and must be abandoned before we can make further progress. One of the most attractive ideas in the Lorentz model of the electron, the idea that all mass is of electromagnetic; origin, appears at the present time to be wrong, for two separate reasons. First, the discovery of the neutron has provided us with a form of mass which it is very hard to believe could be of electromagnetic nature. Secondly, we have the theory of the positron— a theory in agreement with experiment so far as is known—in which positive and negative values for the mass of an electron play symmetrical roles. This cannot be fitted in with the electromagnetic idea of mass, which insists on all mass being positive, even in abstract theory.