Radiative damping of a relativistic electron in classical electrodynamics

An exact solution of the problem of the reaction of the field generated by a relativistic classical electron is derived. It is found that the solution differs dramatically from the known formulas by the presence of a component that is even under time reversal. It is also shown that the component of the generalized radiative damping force that is odd under time reversal coincides with the well-known relativistic damping force obtained from the approximate nonrelativistic formula via a Lorentz transformation. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7761(98)00811-7].