Related papers: Angular momentum of light
Waves of various types carry momentum, which is associated with their propagation direction, i.e., the phase gradient. The circulation of the wave momentum density gives rise to orbital angular momentum (AM). Additionally, for waves…
It is shown that the momentum density of free electromagnetic field splits into two parts. One has no contribution to the net momentum due to the transversality condition. The other yields all the momentum. The angular momentum that…
We compute the angular momentum of the electromagnetic field on a late time Cauchy surface with an arbitrary constant normal vector relevant for the classical scattering of charged particles. We find a time independent contribution to the…
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)…
We derive the semiclassical equation of motion for the wave-packet of light taking into account the Berry curvature in the momentum space. This equation naturally describes the interplay between the orbital and spin angular momenta, i.e.,…
The propagation of plane electromagnetic waves in the gravitational field inside a rotating cloud of dark matter is analyzed. Formulas for the deflection and absorption of light, and the rotation of the polarization plane are obtained in…
It has been known for a long time that light carries both linear and angular momenta parallel to the direction of propagation. However, only recently it has been pointed out that beams of light, under certain conditions, may exhibit a…
In this work we substantiate the applying of the Helmholtz vector decomposition theorem (H-theorem) to vector fields in classical electrodynamics. Using the H-theorem, within the framework of the two-parameter Lorentz-like gauge (so called…
This article was published as Sec.5 of the "Roadmap on Structured Light" in Journal of Optics 19 (2017) 013001. Section 5 describes the essential elements of the classical theory of electromagnetic angular momentum.
This paper analyzes the algebraic and physical properties of the spin and orbital angular momenta of light in the quantum mechanical framework. The consequences of the fact that these are not angular momenta in the quantum mechanical sense…
The conventional decomposition of a vector field into longitudinal (potential) and transverse (vortex) components (Helmholtz's theorem) is claimed in [1] to be inapplicable to the time-dependent vector fields and, in particular, to the…
It is shown that the momentum density of free electromagnetic field splits into two parts. One has no contribution to the net momentum due to the transversality condition. The other yields all the momentum. The angular momentum that is…
We consider the exchange of spin and orbital angular momenta between a circularly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian beam of light and a single atom trapped in a two-dimensional harmonic potential. The radiation field is treated classically but…
The behavior of classical and quantum wave beams in stationary media is shown to be ruled by a "Wave Potential" function encoded in Helmholtz-like equations, determined by the structure itself of the beam and taking, in the quantum case,…
A circularly polarized rotationally symmetric paraxial laser beams carries hbar angular momentum per photon as spin. Focussing the beam with a rotationally symmetric lens cannot change this angular momentum flux, yet the focussed beam must…
We develop a general framework to analyze the two important and much discussed questions concerning (a) `orbital' and `spin' angular momentum carried by light and (b) the paraxial approximation of the free Maxwell system both in the…
We calculate analytically the spin-orbital decomposition of the angular momentum using completely non-paraxial fields that have certain degree of linkage of electric and magnetic lines. The split of the angular momentum into spin-orbital…
The flux of angular momentum of electromagnetic field of an arbitrarily moving point charge is investigated. General equations are obtained for the transfer of angular momentum at arbitrary distance from the charge, and corresponding…
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…
We show that it is possible to obtain self-consistent and physically acceptable relativistic classical equations of motion for a point-like spin-half particle possessing an electric charge and a magnetic dipole moment, directly from a…