Radiation reaction, renormalization and conservation laws in six-dimensional classical electrodynamics

Abstract

A self-action problem for a point-like charged particle arbitrarily moving in flat space-time of six dimensions is considered. A consistent regularization procedure is proposed which relies on energy-momentum and angular momentum balance equations. Structure of the angular momentum tensor carried by the retarded Li\'enard-Wiechert field testifies that a point-like source in six dimensions possesses an internal angular momentum. Its magnitude is proportional to the square of acceleration. It is the so-called {\em rigid} relativistic particle; its motion is determinated by the higher-derivative Lagrangian depending on the curvature of the world line. It is shown that action functional contains, apart from usual bare mass, an additional renormalization constant which corresponds to the magnitude of bare internal angular momentum of the particle.