Concept
Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory
Overview
The Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory (also called the Wheeler–Feynman time-symmetric theory), named after its originators, the physicists Richard Feynman and John Archibald Wheeler, is a theory of electrodynamics based on a relativistically correct extension of action at a distance electron particles. The theory postulates no independent electromagnetic field. Rather, the whole theory is encapsulated by the Lorentz-invariant action
S
{\displaystyle S}
of particle trajectories
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{\displaystyle z_{a}^{\mu }(\tau _{a}),\,\,z_{b}^{\mu }(\tau _{b})\cdots }
defined as
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{\displaystyle S=-\sum _{a<b}{\Bigg (}m_{a}\int \limits _{[\gamma _{a}]}{\sqrt {\mathrm {d} z_{\mu ,a}\mathrm {d} z_{a}^{\mu }}}+q_{a}q_{b}\int \limits _{[\gamma _{a}\times \gamma _{b}]}\mathrm {d} z_{\nu ,a}\mathrm {d} z_{b}^{\nu }\ \delta ((z_{a}-z_{b})_{\mu }(z_{a}-z_{b})^{\mu }){\Bigg )},}
where
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{\displaystyle c=1.}
The absorber theory is invariant under time-reversal transformation, consistent with the lack of any physical basis for microscopic time-reversal symmetry breaking. Another key principle resulting from this interpretation, and somewhat reminiscent of Mach's principle and the work of Hugo Tetrode, is that elementary particles are not self-interacting. This immediately removes the problem of electron self-energy giving an infinity in the energy of an electromagnetic field.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The theory of relativity has justly excited a great amount of public attention. But, for all its importance, it has not been the topic which has chiefly absorbed the recent interest of physicists. Without question that position is held by the quantum theory. The point of interest in this theory is that, according to it, some effects which appear essentially capable of gradual increase or gradual diminution are in…
Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the modern world
States what Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory is.
We have seen that the world of the atom is a world of revolution rather than evolution: the electron which has been moving in one orbit hops quite suddenly into another, so that the motion is what is called “discontinuous”, that is to say, the electron is first in one place and then in another, without having passed over any intermediate places. This sounds like magic, and there may be some way of avoiding such a…
Bertrand Russell, Philosophy
States what Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory is.
Every such disturbance, we find, has a center, and when we get very near the center (though still at a finite distance from it) we find that the law of propagation of the disturbance ceases to be valid. This region within which the law does not hold is called “matter”; it will be an electron or proton according to circumstances. The region so defined is found to move relatively to other such regions, and its…
Bertrand Russell, The A B C of Relativity
States what Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory is.
Related ideas
- General relativity
- Maxwell's equations
- Quantum field theory
- Quantum entanglement
- Theory of relativity
- Time (magazine)
- Newton's laws of motion
- Action at a distance
- Copenhagen interpretation
- Quantum nonlocality
- Edwin Thompson Jaynes
- Retrocausality
- T-symmetry
Place in the tradition
Part of Interpretations of quantum mechanics.
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