In physics, in the area of electrodynamics, the Larmor formula (not to be confused with the Larmor precession from classical nuclear magnetic resonance) is used to calculate the total power radiated by a nonrelativistic point charge as it accelerates. It was first derived by J. J. Larmor in 1897, in the context of the wave theory of light.
When accelerating or decelerating, any charged particle (such as an electron) radiates away energy in the form of electromagnetic waves. For velocities that are small relative to the speed of light, the total power radiated is given by the Larmor formula:
where is the acceleration, is the charge, and is the speed of light. A relativistic generalization is given by the Liénard–Wiechert potentials.
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