Relativistic orbits of classical charged bodies in a spherically symmetric electrostatic field

Abstract

The orbits of a relativistic charged body in a static, spherically symmetric electric field are calculated and classified in the classical theory. Contrary to the nonrelativistic problem, we find that there is a limiting minimal value for the angular momentumL c . Should the actual angular momentum of a charged test body be lower than this limit, the test particle will spiral into the central point charge instead of having (precessing) Keplerian orbits.