English

Angular momentum of light

Optics 2007-05-23 v2 Classical Physics

Abstract

By means of the Helmholtz theorem on the decomposition of vector fields, the angular momentum of the classical electromagnetic field is decomposed, in a general and manifestly gauge invariant manner, into a spin component and an orbital component. The method is applied to linearly and circularly polarized plane waves in their classical and quantum forms.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0504078,
  title  = {Angular momentum of light},
  author = {A. M. Stewart},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0504078},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

15 pages references updated typos corrected