Cherenkov effect for an electric dipole

Abstract

The Cherenkov effect is usually studied for the case of a point particle. In this work we shall analyze, using two methods, this effect for a point electric dipole. We obtain the radiated energy per unit path length per unit frequency, for three different cases: a point electric dipole along the direction of movement, a point electric dipole orthogonal to the direction of motion and a point electric dipole with arbitrary orientation. We compare our results with the case of point particle and particles with structure.