Note on the Theory of the Interaction of Field and Matter

Abstract

The paper develops a method for the systematic integration of the relativistic wave equations for the coupling of electrons and protons with each other and with the electromagnetic field. It is shown that, when the velocity of light is made infinite, these equations reduce to the Schroedinger equation in configuration space for the many body problem. It is further shown that it is impossible on the present theory to eliminate the interaction of a charge with its own field, and that the theory leads to false predictions when it is applied to compute the energy levels and the frequency of the absorption and emission lines of an atom.