Self-Interacting Electromagnetic Fields and a Classical Discussion on the Stability of the Electric Charge

The present work proposes a discussion on the self-energy of charged particles in the framework of nonlinear electrodynamics. We seek magnet- ically stable solutions generated by purely electric charges whose electric and magnetic fields are computed as solutions to the Born-Infeld equa- tions. The approach yields rich internal structures that can be described in terms of the physical fields with explicit analytic solutions. This suggests that the anomalous field probably originates from a magnetic excitation in the vacuum due to the presence of the very intense electric field. In addition, the magnetic contribution has been found to exert a negative pressure on the charge. This, in turn, balances the electric repulsion, in such a way that the self-interaction of the field appears as a simple and natural classical mechanism that is able to account for the stability of the electron charge.