%0 Journal Article
%T The Rise and Fall of the Electromagnetic 4-Potential
%A Eliahu Comay
%J Open Access Library Journal
%V 5
%N 11
%P 1-18
%@ 2333-9721
%D 2018
%I Open Access Library
%R 10.4236/oalib.1104979
%X <div style="text-align:justify;">
	<span style="line-height:1.5;">The Lienard-Wiechert 4-potential depends on local coordinates and on retarded coordinates of a charge at the source. Therefore, the 4-potential of incoming radiation fields (namely, a photon) cannot be written as a 4-vector   which satisfies the locality requirement of fields of a Lagrangian density. This unsolvable problem is the underlying reason for the extremely unusual phenomenon where respectable textbooks make </span><span style="line-height:1.5;">contradictory statements concerning whether the electromagnetic 4-potential   is a 4-vector. Moreover, an analysis of well-established experimental data proves that radiation fields and bound fields are inherently different physical objects. These results indicate that the present form of quantum electrodynamics should be revised. It is further proved that in both cases the 4-potential is not a fundamental element of electrodynamics but an auxiliary quantity. For this reason, there are problems with some specific theoretical ideas that pertain to the 4-potential, like gauge transformations, the Dirac monopole theory and the Aharonov-Bohm effects.</span> 
</div>
%K Special Relativity
%K Maxwellian Electrodynamics
%K The Variational Principle
%K Quantum Theories
%K 4-Potential
%U http://www.oalib.com/paper/5300513