Related papers: Understanding light quanta: The Photon
The purpose of this paper is to show that the composite photon theory measures up well against the Standard Model's elementary photon theory. This is done by comparing the two theories area by area. Although the predictions of quantum…
The classical electromagnetic field of a spinless point electron is described in a formalism with extended causality by discrete finite transverse point-vector fields with discrete and localized point interactions. These fields are taken as…
Quantum electrodynamics is the well-accepted theory. However, we feel it is useful to look at formalisms that provide alternative ways to describe light, because in the recent years the development of quantum field theories based primarily…
After a brief description of the basic principle of a photon collider, we summarize the physics potential of such a facility at high energies. Unique opportunities are provided in supersymmetric theories for the discovery of heavy scalar…
The total mass of noncollinear photons forming diverging light pulses is defined and found explicitly. Both classical and quantum derivations are presented. The quantum derivation is based on the use of multimode coherent states, and links…
The modes of the electromagnetic field are solutions of Maxwell's equations taking into account the material boundary conditions. The field modes of classical optics - properly normalized - are also the mode functions of quantum optics.…
If Einstein's photon is $E = cp = \hbar\omega$, Wigner's photon is its helicity which is a Lorentz-invariant concept coming from the E(2)-like little group for massless particles. In addition, the E(2)-like little group has two…
The topological charge of a photonic vortex is an essential quantity in singular optics and the critical parameter to characterize the vorticity of twisted light. However, the definition of the photonic topological charge remains elusive.…
James Clerk Maxwell unknowingly discovered a correct relativistic, quantum theory for the light quantum, forty-three years before Einstein postulated the photon's existence. In this theory, the usual Maxwell field is the quantum wave…
In this article I give a rigorous construction of the classical and quantum photon field on non-compact manifolds with boundary and in possibly inhomogeneous media. Such a construction is complicated by the presence of zero-modes that may…
The photon sphere concept in Schwarzschild space-time is generalized to a definition of a photon surface in an arbitrary space-time. A photon sphere is then defined as an SO(3)xR-invariant photon surface in a static spherically symmetric…
This article is provides an introduction to the quantum theory of optics in nonlinear dielectric media. We begin with a short summary of the classical theory of nonlinear optics, that is nonlinear optics done with classical fields. We then…
Multi-photon and coherent states of light are formulated in terms of a reducible representation of canonical commutation relations. Standard properties of such states are recovered as certain limiting cases. The new formalism leads to field…
It is argued that the zero point energy in quantum field theory is a reflection of the particle anti-particle content of the theory. This essential physical content is somewhat disguised in electromagnetic theory wherein the photon is its…
Our paper Phys. Rev. D \textbf{79}, 093002 (2009), in which it was shown the paramagnetic behavior of photons propagating in magnetized vacuum, is criticized in Phys. Rev. D \textbf{81}, 105019, (2010) and even claimed that the photon has a…
Some interactions between classical or quantum fields and matter are known to be irreversible processes. Here we associate an entropy to the electromagnetic field from well-known notions of statistical quantum mechanics, in particular the…
Different theoretical and experimental aspects of electromagnetic phenomena in media is reviewed. The 100 year old Minkowski theory is in agreement with most experiments, but has theoretical problems related to its implied validity in all…
This simple analysis shows that photon-like particles are not strange within the conceptual framework of the classical electromagnetic field theory. Circular polarized waves lead to photons. Thus, light quantum hypothesis is not necessary.
Information processing with light is ubiquitous, from communication, metrology and imaging to computing. When we consider light as a quantum mechanical object, new ways of information processing become possible. In this review I give an…
Recently, several discussions on the possible observability of 4-vector fields have been published in literature. Furthermore, several authors recently claimed existence of the helicity=0 fundamental field. We re-examine the theory of…