Radiation from an accelerated charged particle emitting null fluid

Abstract

We consider a metric of the Kerr - Schild family which gives the geometry of spacetime in the presence of a charged particle undergoing arbitrarily accelerated motion with the anisotropic emission of null fluid. An interpretation in terms of the flow of energy and momentum in the background flat spacetime shows that the null fluid provides the input of energy and momentum necessary to accelerate the particle with the emission of electromagnetic radiation. The classical electromagnetic radiation reaction term arises naturally in the analysis. There is no gravitational radiation.