Related papers: Electromagnetic Angular Momentum
This article was published as Sec.4 of the "Roadmap on Structured Light" in Journal of Optics 19 (2017) 013001. Section 4 describes the essential elements of the classical theory of electromagnetic force and momentum.
Invoking Maxwell's classical equations in conjunction with expressions for the electromagnetic (EM) energy, momentum, force, and torque, we use a few simple examples to demonstrate the nature of the EM angular momentum. The energy and the…
Angular momenta of electromagnetic waves are important both in concepts and applications. In this work, we systematically discuss two types of angular momenta, i.e., spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum in various cases, e.g.,…
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…
Angular momentum is taught in every classical mechanics course. It is a difficult topic with misconceptions commonly forming significant barriers to student success. My intention in writing this paper is to combat some of the most common…
The angular momentum of a classical electromagnetic plane wave of arbitrary extent is predicted to be, on theoretical grounds, exactly zero. However, finite sections of circularly polarized plane waves are found experimentally to carry…
A decomposition of the angular momentum of the classical electromagnetic field into orbital and spin components that is manifestly gauge invariant and general has been obtained. This is done by decomposing the electric field into its…
We propose a discussion of angular momentum and its Euler equation, with the aim of giving a short outline of their history. This outline can be useful for teaching purposes too, to amend some problems that students can have in learning…
We compare three attempts that have been made to decompose the angular momentum of the electromagnetic field into components of an "orbital" and "spin" nature. All three expressions are different and it appears, on the basis of classical…
In this paper we shall define and study the angular momentum-energy space for the classical problem of plane-motions of a particle situated in a potential field of a central force. We shall present the angular momentum-energy space for some…
We review basic physics and novel types of optical angular momentum. We start with a theoretical overview of momentum and angular momentum properties of generic optical fields, and discuss methods for their experimental measurements. In…
Fundamental and applied concepts concerning the ability of light beams to carry a certain mechanical angular momentum with respect to the propagation axis are reviewed and discussed. Following issues are included: Historical reference;…
The angular momentum of radiation from an arbitrarily moving relativistic charge is studied. The angular momentum is presented as the sum of the angular momentum relative to the point where the charge is located at a retarded moment of time…
The origin of electromagnetic momentum for general static charge-current distributions is examined. The electromagnetic momentum for static electromagnetic fields is derived by implementing conservation of momentum for the sum of mechanical…
The concept of angular momentum is ubiquitous to many areas of physics. In classical mechanics, a system may possess an angular momentum which can be either transverse (e.g., in a spinning wheel) or longitudinal (e.g., for a fluidic vortex)…
The present technical notes offer a brief summary of the essential points of electromagnetism at the undergraduate physics level. Some problems are presented at the end of each section; those with solutions are marked with an asterisk.
We study theoretically by means of quantum electrodynamics the vortex radiation of a relativistic electron in a uniform magnetic field. The exact expressions for the probability of emission of a photon with a certain angular momentum are…
The angular momentum of the physical electron, modelled as a Dirac fermion coupled to the electromagnetic field, is found to be hbar/2, the same as that of a bare Dirac fermion and independent of the size of the electric charge.
It is shown how the standard forms for the spin and orbital components of the angular momentum of a paraxial wave of electromagnetic radiation are obtained from the general expressions for the angular momentum that have been derived…
The nature of intrinsic/extrinsic character of angular momentum is defined in terms of the kind of the associated rotational energy of the light. The salient features of the spin energy of light and photon are highlighted. Spin angular…