ABSTRACT. It is pointed out that the self-consistent treatment of radiation reaction is a common feature of many Ph.D. theses of E. T. Jaynes' students and “grandstudents” in the 30-year period 1962 - 1992. In this way they are all descended from Microwave Laboratory Report 502, written by Jaynes at Stanford in 1958. A number of examples are described briefly, and a new example that extends the framework laid down in M. L. 502 is presented.

Microwave Laboratory Report 502

In 1958 E. T. Jaynes wrote a paper entitled Some Aspects of Maser Theory that was issued as Microwave Laboratory Report No. 502 at Stanford University. The cover of the report is shown in Fig. 1.

In the Abstract of M. L. 502 Jaynes identified the work as an examination of the relation between quantum electrodynamics and the semiclassical theory of radiation. M. L. 502 was intended to serve as a preliminary step in a study of the ultimate limitations on noise figure and frequency stability in molecular-beam masers. The Abstract says, among other things, that “the semiclassical theory, as extended here, is a far more reliable means of calculating radiation processes than usually supposed.” In the present author's view, M. L. 502 reported the first examination of dynamical questions that are now associated with the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics.