Re: Potential of a point charge

[Aaron Titus <titus@MAILAPS.ORG>]

On Thursday, February 26, 2004, at 01:10 PM, John Denker wrote:
> In the problem Rick asked about, people commonly choose the
> gauge such that the potential goes to zero at r=infinity.
> But this is absolutely not mandatory.

According to Chabay and Sherwood in Matter & Interactions, U_{elec}=0
at infinity is required by relativity so that at r=infinity, the energy
of the system (perhaps two particles for example) is equal to mc^2. It
thus follows that V=0 at infinity for a point particle.

AT