Abstract :
In this paper we consider classical point particles in full interaction with an arbitrary number of dynamical scalar and (abelian) vector fields. It is shown that the requirement of stability — vanishing self-force — is sufficient to remove the well-known inconsistencies of the classical theory: the divergent self-energy, as well as the failure of Lorentz covariance of the energy-momentum when including the contributions of the fields. As a result, in these models the mass of a point particle becomes finitely computable. We discuss how these models are connected to quantum field theory via the path-integral representation of the propagator.
