Quantization of Wheeler-Feynman Electrodynamics

Abstract

IN a recent letter, Katz, Oran and Schwartz¹ (KOS) have argued that our treatment of spontaneous emission² deviates from the classical Wheeler–Feynman (WF) prescription³. They base their argument on the form of the interaction term where A^(a)_ret is the retarded potential arising from the motion of the source particle a, and b(t) is the path of a typical absorber particle b. Written in this form (1) denotes the retarded effect of particle a on particle b. KOS, however, rewrite (1) in the form and argue that (2) represents the advanced effect of b on a.