Related papers: The Maxwell wave function of the photon
We extend classical Maxwell field theory to a first quantized theory of the photon by deriving a conserved Lorentz four-current whose zero component is a positive definite number density. Fields are real and their positive (negative)…
Quantum theory of photons based on the first quantization technique, similar to that used by Schroedinger in the formulation of quantum mechanics, is considered. First, scalar quantum mechanics of photons operating with the photon wave…
One can interpret the Dirac equation either as giving the dynamics for a classical field or a quantum wave function. Here I examine whether Maxwell's equations, which are standardly interpreted as giving the dynamics for the classical…
Modern attempts to understand light go back to Newton who considered light to be particles, the so called corpuscular theory, and the other school of Huygens, Young and others. Huygens and Young viewpoint emphasised the wave property. This…
The analysis of the Doppler effect for photons in rotating systems, studied using the M\"ossbauer effect, confirms the general conclusions of a previous paper dedicated to experiments with photons emitted/absorbed by atoms/nuclei in…
In modern physics courses the idea of photon has been teaching through from the einsteinian formulation based on the photoelectric effect. Einstein's photon concept allow the quantization of the electromagnetic field, but does not dwell on…
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…
Maxwell equations (Faraday and Ampere-Maxwell laws) can be presented as a three component equation in a way similar to the two component neutrino equation. However, in this case, the electric and magnetic Gauss's laws can not be derived…
Standard pedagogy introduces optics as though it were a consequence of Maxwell's equations, and only grudgingly admits, usually in a rushed aside, that light has a particulate character that can somehow be reconciled with the wave picture.…
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…
In near-field optics and optical tunneling theory, photon wave mechanics, i.e., the first quantized theory of the photon, allows us to address the spatial field localization problem in a flexible manner which links smoothly to classical…
The photoelectric effect has been discovered by H. Hertz, and studied experimentally by P. Lenard. First theoretical explanation has been done by A. Einstein who suggested the corpuscular theory of light introducing the "photons" which are…
Maxwell's equations, formulated 150 years ago, ultimately describe properties of light, from classical electromagnetism to quantum and relativistic aspects. The latter ones result in remarkable geometric and topological phenomena related to…
Maxwell's equations in the vacuum can be formally cast in the form of Schr\"odinger's equation. Unfortunately, the vector to which this equation directly applies is not a wavefunction: its amplitude squared is not a probability density but…
In the year 1900 Max Planck was led by experimental observations to propose a strange formula for the intensity as a function of frequency for light emitted by a cavity. It relied on peculiar properties to be obeyed by the emitters and…
The difficulties encountered up till now in the theory of identifying the spin and orbital angular momentum of the photon stem from the approach of dividing the angular momentum of the photon into spin and orbital parts. Here we derive the…
Quantum optics is a field of research based on the quantum theory of light. Here, we show that the classical theory of light can be equally effective in explaining a cornerstone of quantum optics: the quantization of the free radiation…
The Lorenz electromagnetic theory of light, published two years after the Maxwell theory, starts by postulating that both scalar and vector potentials are retarded. We show that in spite of this postulate, Lorenz's theory gives a…
Several years ago, I suggested a quantum field theory which has many attractive features. (1) It can explain the quantization of electric charge. (2) It describes symmetrized Maxwell equations. (3) It is manifestly covariant. (4) It…
The discovery of the Planck's relation is generally regarded as the starting point of quantum physics. The Planck's constant h is now regarded as one of the most important universal constants. The physical nature of h, however, has not been…