Photon Orbital Angular Momentum and Mass in a Plasma Vortex
Plasma Physics
2014-11-20 v2 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Classical Physics
Optics
Space Physics
Abstract
We analyse the Anderson-Higgs mechanism of photon mass acquisition in a plasma and study the contribution to the mass from the orbital angular momentum acquired by a beam of photons when it crosses a spatially structured charge distribution. To this end we apply Proca-Maxwell equations in a static plasma with a particular spatial distribution of free charges, notably a plasma vortex, that is able to impose orbital angular momentum (OAM) onto light. In addition to the mass acquisition of the conventional Anderson-Higgs mechanism, we find that the photon acquires an additional mass from the OAM and that this mass reduces the Proca photon mass.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1001.4042,
title = {Photon Orbital Angular Momentum and Mass in a Plasma Vortex},
author = {F. Tamburini and A. Sponselli and B. Thidé and J. T. Mendonça},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1001.4042},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
Four pages, no figures. Error corrections, improved notation, refined derivations