Speaker : A. Harte

Title : Self-forces and self-torques in arbitrary dimensions : Part II

Abstract : Continuing from part I given by P. Taylor, I provide more details on self-interaction effects in different numbers of dimensions. First, I describe how point particle limits work in this context, explaining that self-forces and self-torques become less important in higher numbers of dimensions : In general, they mix in essential ways with increasingly high-order extended body effects. Perhaps more interestingly, self-forces can be much larger than usual in 2+1 dimensions (which might have experimental consequences). Second, I describe how to transition from describing static to fully dynamical self-forces in different numbers of dimensions. A direct generalization of the Detweiler-Whiting prescription turns out to fail, but is replaced by something else which involves a two-point distribution that is not a Green function. The new perspectives suggested by these results shed significant new light even on the physics of four-dimensional systems.