English

Hamiltonian Structure for Classical Electrodynamics of a Point Particle

Classical Physics 2009-10-30 v1

Abstract

We prove that, contrary to the common belief, the classical Maxwell electrodynamics of a point-like particle may be formulated as an infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian system. We derive well defined quasi-Hamiltonian which possesses direct physical interpretation being equal to the total energy of the composed (field + particle) system. The phase space of this system is endowed with an interesting symplectic structure. We prove that this structure is strongly non-degenerated and, therefore, enables one to define consistent Poisson bracket for particle's and field degrees of freedom. We stress that this formulation is perfectly gauge-invariant.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/9712014,
  title  = {Hamiltonian Structure for Classical Electrodynamics of a Point Particle},
  author = {Dariusz Chruscinski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/9712014},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

36 pages, LATEX

R2 v1 2026-07-22T19:17:19.673Z