Iacopini and Zavattini [Vacuum polarization effects in the [Formula: see text] atom and the Born–Infeld electromagnetic theory, Nuovo Cimento B 78 (1983) 38–52] proposed a [Formula: see text]-two-parameter modification of Born–Infeld electrodynamics, in which the classical self-energy for an electron takes a finite value for [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we want to study a cylindrical capacitor from the viewpoint of Iacopini–Zavattini nonlinear electrodynamics analytically. The capacitance, the electrostatic potential energy, and the potential difference between the plates of a cylindrical capacitor are calculated in the framework of Iacopini–Zavattini electrodynamics for two specific values of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The study of the behavior of a nonlinear cylindrical capacitor in the weak electric fields shows that our results are compatible with the correspondence principle, i.e. we recover the results of Maxwell electrodynamics in the weak field regime. Finally, the invariance of Iacopini–Zavattini nonlinear electrodynamics under the duality transformation is investigated.

The nonlinear capacitors are important devices in modern technologies and applied physics. The aim of this paper is to calculate exactly the capacitance and the electrostatic potential energy of a nonlinear parallel-plate capacitor by using a two-parameter modification of Born-Infeld electrodynamics. Our calculations show that the capacitance and the electrostatic potential energy of a nonlinear parallel-plate capacitor in modified Born-Infeld theory have the weak field expansions C=ϵ_0 A/d+ O(q^2) and U=q^2/2(ϵ_0 A/d)+ O(q^4), where q is the amount of electric charge on each plate of the capacitor. It is demonstrated that the results of this paper are in agreement with the results of Maxwell electrodynamics for weak electric fields. Numerical evaluations show that the nonlinear electrodynamical effects in modified Born-Infeld theory are negligible in the weak field regime.

More than 80 years ago, Born-Infeld electrodynamics was proposed in order to remove the point charge singularity in Maxwell electrodynamics. In this work, after a brief introduction to Lagrangian formulation of Abelian Born-Infeld model in the presence of an external source, we obtain the explicit forms of Gauss’s law and the energy density of an electrostatic field for Born-Infeld electrostatics. The electric field and the stored electrostatic energy per unit length for an infinite charged line and an infinitely long cylinder in Born-Infeld electrostatics are calculated. Numerical estimations in this paper show that the nonlinear corrections to Maxwell electrodynamics are considerable only for strong electric fields. We present an action functional for Abelian Born-Infeld model with an auxiliary scalar field in the presence of an external source. This action functional is a generalization of the action functional which was presented by Tseytlin in his studies on low energy dynamics of D -branes (Nucl. Phys. B469, 51 (1996); Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 19, 3427 (2004)). Finally, we derive the symmetric energy-momentum tensor for Abelian Born-Infeld model with an auxiliary scalar field.