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arXiv:0803.2596

How Long Is a Photon?

I. V. Drozdov, A. A. Stahlhofen

Published Mar 18, 2008• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

An interpretation of an electromagnetic quantum as a single pulse is suggested. In this context the Planck formula is shown to be equivalent to the Heisenberg time-energy uncertainty relation. This allows to treat the photon frequency as an inverse time of emission. Such an ansatz avoids the inherent problems of the conventional approach.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.0803.2596

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An interpretation of an electromagnetic quantum as a single pulse is suggested. In this context the Planck formula is shown to be equivalent to the Heisenberg time-energy uncertainty relation. This allows to treat the photon frequency as an inverse time of emission. Such an ansatz avoids the inherent problems of the conventional approach.
Abstract Two complementary properties, such as frequency and duration of a pulse, cannot be precisely measured simultaneously. The lower bound on the time-bandwidth product, known also as uncertainty relation, plays a very important role in quantum theory. In this work, we consider single-photon pulses with arbitrary temporal and spectral profiles, and derive a lower bound for the single-photon time-bandwidth product. We investigate how this bound depends on the modal purity, the single-mode fidelity, and the effective number of modes. Our results can be used to solve the inverse problem, namely, to estimate characteristics of the single-photon pulse based on the time-bandwidth product obtained from temporal and spectral measurements of the pulse.
The classical and the quantum expressions of the energy of the electromagnetic radiation are compared. This comparison shows that, contrary to the commonly expected, the dependency of the energy [Formula: see text] of the photon with respect to the frequency [Formula: see text] on the Einstein–Planck relation [Formula: see text] is obtainable from classical electrodynamics, a fact that may provide a new historic perspective of the birth of quantum mechanics. It is suggested that the photon is a composite particle, constituted by quanta of electric and magnetic field fluxes maybe in an entangled state — being these two quanta either real or only as pseudo particles. It is also suggested a modification on the de Broglie’s fusion principle for the photon for the specific case in consideration.
This paper discusses how the two ways in which the wavefunction of a free-propagating photon can be introduced-starting from the relativistic energy-momentum relationship or based on the electromagnetic field, in particular on Riemann-Silberstein vectors-are not entirely equivalent since they can lead to different consequences regarding photon localization. In the first case, a phase space localization in regions of the order of Planck's constant, in agreement with the quantum uncertainty principle, could be unambiguously obtained. In the second case, the choice of canonically conjugate variables and Fourier transforms determines if the state is treated quantumly or classically. Both formalisms are, however, compatible.
The idea to base the uncertainty relation for photons on the electromagnetic energy distribution in space enabled us to derive a sharp inequality that expresses the uncertainty relation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 140401 (2012)]. An alternative version of the uncertainty relation derived in this paper is closer in spirit to the original Heisenberg relation because it employs the analog of the position operator for the photon---the center of the energy operator. The noncommutativity of the components of the center of the energy operator results in the increase of the bound $3\ensuremath{\hbar}/2$ in the standard Heisenberg uncertainty relation in three dimensions. This difference diminishes with the increase of the photon energy. In the infinite-momentum frame, the lower bound in the Heisenberg uncertainty relations for photons is the same as in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. A similar uncertainty relation is also derived for coherent photon beams. This relation has direct experimental consequences since it gives a precise relationship between the spectral composition of the laser beam and the minimal focal volume.
I assume that everywhere in space there is a real random electromagnetic radiation, or zeropoint field (ZPF), which looks similar for all inertial observers, so that the stochastic properties of the field should be Lorentz invariant. This fixes the spectrum except for a single adjustable parameter measuring the scale, which is identified with Planck's constant, so making the ZPF identical to the quantum electromagnetic vacuum. Photons are just fluctuations of the random field or, equivalently, wavepackets in the form of needles of radiation superimposed to the ZPF. Two photons are "classically correlated" if the correlation involves just the intensity above the average energy of the ZPF, but they are "entangled" if the ZP fields in the neighbourhood of the photons are also correlated. These assumptions may explain all quantum optical phenomena involving radiation and macroscopic bodies, provided the latter may be treated as classical. That is, we have an interpretation of quantization for light but not for matter. Detection of photons involves subtracting the ZPF, which cannot be made without a fundamental uncertainty. This explains why photon counters cannot be manufactured with 100% efficiency and no noise (dark rate), which prevents the violation of a genuine Bell inequality (this is the so-called detection loophole). The theory thus obtained agrees very closely with standard quantum optics if this is formulated in the Wigner representation.