When an electron is stationary it has an electric field around it. The strength of that electric field (called the electrostatic field) is given by the equation

where
is the radial component of the electric field (which, in this case, is the only component),
is the charge on the electron,
is the radial distance from the electron, and
is the permittivity of free space
.

An electron is surrounded by a radial electric field
If the electron is moving in a wire we have a current. A moving electron produces a magnetic field, but this magnetic field is constant because the electron’s motion has a constant velocity. In order for an electron to radiate Electromagnetic (EM) radiation, it needs to accelerate. Remember, acceleration means its velocity needs to change, which can be achieved either by changing the electron’s speed or its direction. Both types of change will produce an acceleration, and hence produce EM radiation.
In 1907 J.J. Thomson, who discovered the electron in 1897, presented an argument which helps us understand why an accelerated electron produces EM radiation.
Thomson’s argument of why an accelerated electron radiates
Let us suppose we have an electron which is initially at the origin of a coordinate system at time
. Thus the electric field lines radiate from the origin as shown in this diagram.
We are now going to accelerate it in a time
to the right, along the x-axis, and we shall see how this affects the electric field surrounding this electron. We are going to accelerate it to a small velocity
which is much less than the speed of light
(so that we do not have to consider relativistic effects). The acceleration is given by
.
We are going to consider the electric field lines at some distance
from the electron. This distance is shown by the black dashed circle in the diagram above. Because of the finite propagation speed of EM radiation, the sphere can also be said to have a radius of
. The radius of the sphere
is chosen to be large enough so that the distance moved by the electron in the time
is much less than the radius of this sphere. That is,
.
At a time
later, the electron has moved a distance
to the right. Because the black dashed sphere is large, with
, the electric field lines outside of this sphere are indisturbed by the motion of the electron, as its change of position has not had time to propogate out to such distances. However, close to the electron the field lines are centred on the new position of the electron. These new field lines are represented in red in the figure below, with the black dashed lines representing the original field lines from when the electron was at the origin. The diagram also shows the original black dashed circle centred on the origin, but also a new solid red circle centred on the new position of the electron.
There is a transition region where the new field lines (the red ones) connect up with the old field lines (the black ones), in a shell. As the electron moves for a time
, the thickness of this transition region (a shell) is
. We are going to consider the radial component and the tangential component (the tangential component is at right angles to the radial component) of the electric field in this shell. That is, the radial and the tangential components of the electric field line from point
in the diagram below.
As the electron has moved a distance
, and we are considering a field line which is at an angle
to the x-axis, the ratio of the tangential component of the electric field to the radial component is just given by the tangential and radial components of the triangle
, that is

But, the radial component
is given in Equ. 1 above, so we can write

Re-ordering out terms we can write

Remembering that
and the acceleration of the electron
we can write

So, this is the pulse of EM radiation which is produced by an accelerating electron. Notice that
- it depends on the acceleration
of the electron, the larger the acceleration the greater the EM pulse.
- it is dependent on
, and
- it is tangential (at right angles) to the direction of motion of the electron.
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