Photons in the Quantum World (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2009
It is easy to draw an intuitive parallel between the classical free electromagnetic field and its corresponding quantum, the photonsa spin-1 object. The situation with a massive particle such as an electron is less clear, as a real-world analog of the classical field whose quantum is the massive particle is not available. It is concluded that the fermion particle perspective provides the best avenue for an intuitive grasp of the spin of an elementary fermion.
The Structure of the Photon in Complex Vector Space
Considering the complex vector electromagnetic field, the energy of the photon is expressed as an even multivector consisting of a scalar kinetic energy part and a bivector rotational energy part. Since any even multivector can be expressed as a rotor representing internal rotations, the electromagnetic energy even multivector represents internal complex rotations. It has been shown that the spin angular momentum is the generator of rotations in the plane normal to the propagation direction and the orbital angular momentum is the generator of rotations in a plane normal to the spin plane. The internal structure of the photon may be visualized as a superposition of electromagnetic field flow or rotation in two normal orientations in complex vector space. The cause of such complex rotations is attributed to the presence of electromagnetic zeropoint field.
The Spin-Spin Interaction and the New Concept of Photon
Journal of Electromagnetic Analysis and Applications, 2012
After researching carefully the well known M. Planck's law of the black-body radiation, the quantum theory of field and the Einstein's postulates about interaction of the photon with the atoms, there are a lot of unclear questions about photon and its interaction with atom. From all the above questions, there are three main following questions: Why does the energy of a light mode include zero-point energy? Where does the first photon come from in universe? and What is the first fact as a reason of absorption, emission in the photon-atom interaction? To find out the acceptable answers, here we propose postulates about the zero-photon and then about the new concepts of photon. Using them, we have tried to describe the basic characters of the photon and explain the photon-atom interaction in other way: the spin-spin interaction. Our results showed out the different picture of mechanism of the photon-atom interaction, the existence of the zero-photon energy, the absorption as well as the emission rule and its probabilities.
The Pauli-Lubanski Vector and Photon Helicity
2015
We critically analyze the concept of photon helicity and its connection with the Pauli-Lubański vector from the viewpoint of the complex electromagnetic field, F = E + iH, introduced by Riemann and studied by Minkowski.
Circular Polarization and Quantum Spin: A Unified Real-Space Picture of Photons and Electrons
2006
It is generally believed that no simple real-space semiclassical picture can consistently explain both a quantum wave and its spin. However, it is shown here [1] that a rotating vector field carrying angular momentum leads directly to the Einstein-de Broglie relations (E = hnu and p = h/lambda, the heart of quantum mechanics), assuming only quantization of spin and Lorentz invariance of the phase angle. For electromagnetism, such a circularly polarized wave packet defines the photon. A very similar picture of a massive rotating vector field maps onto a complex wavefunction obeying the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a particle such as the electron, with m>0 and v<<c. This real vector field rotates about the spin axis at mc^2/h ˜ 10^20 Hz. This suggests a unified picture whereby all fundamental quantum particles consist of such coherent wave packets of rotating spin fields, with composite particles deriving their quantum properties from the coherent rotations of thei...
On the Electric-Magnetic Duality Symmetry: Quantum Anomaly, Optical Helicity, and Particle Creation
Symmetry
It is well known that not every symmetry of a classical field theory is also a symmetry of its quantum version. When this occurs, we speak of quantum anomalies. The existence of anomalies imply that some classical Noether charges are no longer conserved in the quantum theory. In this paper, we discuss a new example for quantum electromagnetic fields propagating in the presence of gravity. We argue that the symmetry under electric-magnetic duality rotations of the source-free Maxwell action is anomalous in curved spacetimes. The classical Noether charge associated with these transformations accounts for the net circular polarization or the optical helicity of the electromagnetic field. Therefore, our results describe the way the spacetime curvature changes the helicity of photons and opens the possibility of extracting information from strong gravitational fields through the observation of the polarization of photons. We also argue that the physical consequences of this anomaly can b...
On the Photon Vertex and Half-Integer Spin
2023
When rewriting the photon vertex of quantum electrodynamics in terms of geometrical quantities, various elements can be mapped directly to objects and properties known from classical projective geometry (PG). Elements of P5 when mapped to line reps in P3 exhibit their intrinsic Lorentz invariance associated to automorphisms of the Plücker-Klein quadric M42{M}_{4}^{2}M42, and line reps when expressed by point or plane coordinates introduce (one-parameter) pencils, or formally gl(2,${\bf R}$), or gl(1,${\bf H$}) which covers su(2)⊕u(1). This introduces binary forms and, using a potential approach of central forces, Schrödinger or Laplace equations and the respective special functions, as well as the projective generation of quadrics like in Dirac's approach which legitimates Clifford algebra elements as linear factors in invariant theory and the quadratic algebra to represent geometry. Physically, this identification allows for the classical concept of moments in terms of tetrahedrons which on the one hand relates to previous work on SU(4) and SU*(4) in quantum representations. On the other hand, it relates to the classical physical definitions, however, exhibiting a factor 2 between contemporary (euclidean) moments and the tetrahedral construction used in the vertex. Finally, we discuss the equilibrium conditions with respect to gauge and Yang-Mills theories in general as well as the related objects and their transformation theory.
The Papers of Independent Authors, ISSN 2225-6717, 2021, 55, 13–18., 2021
The so-called. wave-AND-particle-WAP, which is a standing wave in the volume of a cube. On the sides of the cube, the flux is zero, i.e. the cube does not emit energy. However, there are magnetic and electrical strengths on the sides of the cube. It is shown that such HIV, having received a quantum of energy, becomes a quantum of energy flow and flies at the speed of light. Such a representation allows one to remove the contradictions between Maxwell's equations and the quantization of the energy of electromagnetic radiation, associated, firstly, with the fact that the energy transferred from light to atoms depends only on frequency, and, secondly, with the fact that it is impossible to find the wave equation for a photon.
Nature Physics, 2007
The orbital angular momentum of light represents a fundamentally new optical degree of freedom. Unlike linear momentum, or spin angular momentum, which is associated with the polarization of light, orbital angular momentum arises as a subtler and more complex consequence of the spatial distribution of the intensity and phase of an optical fi eld -even down to the single photon limit.
A Note on the Lorentz Transformations for the Photon
Foundations of Physics Letters, 2006
We discuss transormation laws of electric and magnetic fields under Lorentz transformations, deduced from the Classical Field Theory. It is found that we can connect the resulting expression for a bivector formed with those fields, with the expression deduced from the Wigner transformation rules for spin-1 functions of massive particles. This mass parameter should be interpreted because the constancy of speed of light forbids the existence of the photon mass.