Speaker: 

Anatoly Babine

Institution: 

UCI

Time: 

Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 2:00pm

Location: 

RH 306

It is well-known that classical electrodynamics encounters serious
problems at microscopic scales. In the talk I describe a neoclassical
theory of electric charges which is applicable both at macroscopic and
microscopic scales. From a field Lagrangian we derive field equations,
in particular Maxwell equations for EM fields and field equations for
charge distributions. In the nonrelativistic case the charges field
equations are nonlinear Schrodinger equations coupled with EM field
equations. In a macroscopic limit we derive that centers of charge
distributions converge to trajectories of point charges described by
Newton's law of motion with Coulomb interaction and Lorentz forces. In a
microscopic regime a close interaction of two bound charges as in
hydrogen atom is modeled by a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. The critical
energy values of the problem converge to the well-known energy levels of
the linear Schrdinger operator when the free charge size is much larger
than the Bohr radius. The talk is based on a joint work with A. Figotin.