Related papers: Photon wave function
In contrast to wave functions in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics interpreted as probability amplitudes, wave functions in relativistic quantum mechanics have generalized meanings such as charge-density amplitudes, energy-density…
The most puzzling issue in the foundations of quantum mechanics is perhaps that of the status of the wave function of a system in a quantum universe. Is the wave function objective or subjective? Does it represent the physical state of the…
Photons deliver their energy and momentum to a point on a material target. It is commonplace to attribute this to particle impact. But since the inflight photon also has a wave nature, we are stuck with the paradox of wave and particle…
Following the spirit of de Broglie and Einstein, we think the concepts of matter and radiation can be unified. We know a particle propagates like a wave; its motion is described by certain wave equations. At this point, it is not clear what…
We discuss the limits of the photon wavefunction (PWF) formalism, which is experiencing a revival in these days from the new practical applications in photonics and quantum optics. We build a Dirac-like equation for the PWF written in a…
Although quantum mechanics is one of our most successful physical theories, there has been a long-standing debate about the interpretation of the wave function---the central object of the theory. Two prominent views are that (i) it…
I address the question whether the wave function in quantum theory exists as a real (ontic) quantity or not. For this purpose, I discuss the essentials of the quantum formalism and emphasize the central role of the superposition principle.…
An experiment is presented in which the alleged progression of a photon's wave function is ``measured'' by a row of superposed atoms. The photon's wave function affects only one out of the atoms, regardless of its position within the row,…
One and two photon wave functions are obtained by projection onto a basis of simultaneous eigenvectors of the position and number operators.
We present a general theory to describe two-photon interference, including a formal description of few photon intereference in terms of single-photon amplitudes. With this formalism, it is possible to describe both frequency entangled and…
The two opposite concepts - multiphoton and effective photon - readily describing the photoelectric effect under strong irradiation in the case that the energy of the incident light is essentially smaller than the ionisation potential of…
The monochromatic Dirac and polychromatic Titulaer-Glauber quantized field theories (QFTs) of electromagnetism are derived from a photon-energy wave function in much the same way that one derives QFT for electrons, that is, by quantization…
One and two photon wave functions are derived by projecting the quantum state vector onto simultaneous eigenvectors of the number operator and a recently constructed photon position operator [Phys. Rev A 59, 954 (1999)] that couples spin…
A wavefunction for single- and many-photon states is defined by associating photons with different momenta to different spectral and polarization components of the classical, generally complex, electromagnetic field that propagates in a…
This paper focuses on a constructive treatment of the mathematical formalism of quantum theory and a possible role of constructivist philosophy in resolving the foundational problems of quantum mechanics, particularly, the controversy over…
The wave-particle duality has been said to contain the entire mystery of quantum mechanics. Many delayed-choice experiments have been performed to further understand the wave-particle duality. Here, we reveal some flaws in the known…
The leading-twist wave functions of the pion and the photon at a low normalization point are calculated in the effective low--energy theory derived from the instanton vacuum. The pion wave function is found to be close to the asymptotic…
The Bialynicki-Birula-Sipe photon wave function formalism is extended to include the interaction between photons and continuous non-absorptive media. When the second quantization of this formalism is introduced, a new way of describing the…
The wave function was proposed for description of quantum phenomena on the atomic level. But now it is well known that quantum phenomena are observed not only on atomic level and the wave function is used for description of macroscopic…
The light-cone Photon wave function in explicit helicity states, valid for massive quarks and in both momentum and configuration space, is presented by considering the leading order photon-proton hard scattering, i.e., the splitting quark…