Photon Wave Mechanics: Complex Field Theory

Ole Keller

M. A. M. El-Nadi

The present work is concerned with de Broglie's quantum theory of light. It is assumed that the photon is described by a Hermitian wave function with 16 components. Using this wave function it is shown that the 32 of de Broglie's equations are reduced to one set of 16 equations in the form: [equation] where the [alpha]'[rho] are Dirac matrices and [psi] is a matrix with 16 components. The electromagnetic quantities associated with the photon are described by means of the Dirac matrices operating on [psi] in a specified way. It is shown also that these electromagnetic quantities satisfy Maxwell's equations as a result of the equation the interaction between an electron and a photon is developed and the matrix elements for the radiation transitions are calculated. It is further shown that the above wave equation can be considered as the superposition of two similar wave equations, one for the positive energy photons and the other for the negative energy photons. To each of these states there corresponds electromagnetic quantities defined by the above method. It is the superposition of these fields which gives rise to the reality of the electromagnetic field, found in experience. The wave mechanics of the positive energy photon is discussed and the method of second quantization is applied to its wave function, from which we deduce the commutation relations for the complex fields.

Lajos Jánossy

Brian J. Smith, M. G. Raymer

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, i.e., by quantization of a single-particle wave function. The photon wave function and its equation of motion are established from the Einstein energy–momentum–mass relation, assuming a local energy density. This yields a theory of photon wave mechanics (PWM). The proper Lorentz-invariant single-photon scalar product is found to be non-local in coordinate space, and is shown to correspond to orthogonalization of the Titulaer–Glauber wave-packet modes. The wave functions of PWM and mode functions of QFT are shown to be equivalent, evolving via identical equations of motion, and completely describe photonic states. We generalize PWM to two or more photons, and show how to switch between the PWM and QFT viewpoints. The second-order coherence tensors of classical coherence theory and the two-photon wave functions are shown to propagate equivalently. We give examples of beam-like states, which can be used as photon wave functions in PWM, or modes in QFT. We propose a practical mode converter based on spectral filtering to convert between wave packets and their corresponding biorthogonal dual wave packets.

Daniel J. Rogers

M. Bertolotti

When rewritten in an appropriate manner, the microscopic Maxwell-Lorentz equations appear as a wavemechanical theory for photons, and their quantum physical interaction with matter. A natural extension leads from photon wave mechanics to quantum electrodynamics (QED). In its modern formulation photon wave mechanics has given us valuable new insight in subjects such as spatial photon localization, near-field photon dynamics, transverse photon mass, photon eikonal theory, photon tunneling, and rim-zone electrodynamics. The present review is based on my plenary lecture at the SPIE-Europe 2009 Optics and Optoelectronics International Symposium in Prague.