Self-Energy and Interaction Energy in Podolsky's Generalized Electrodynamics

Using a perturbation method, explicit expressions are derived for the electromagnetic self-energy and electromagnetic interaction energy of charged particles in Podolsky's generalized quantum electrodynamics. No infinities arise in the derivation, which is justified to the first order of approximation (i.e., to terms quadratic in the charges). Two noteworthy results follow from the calculations. (a) The self-energy is finite and negative. (b) The interaction energy contains no singularities.