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Chinese Optics Letters

Photon state-vector function

Zhixin Yao, Jianwei Zhong, Bailiang Pan, Gang Chen

Published Aug 28, 2005• 2 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The exclusive carrier of photonics is photon, which is a kind of microscopic particles so that obeys the generalized Schrodinger equation, namely the motion equation for a photon. A novel state-vector function that satisfies the equation with three quantum conditions has been constructed, which possesses not only the energy and the momentum but also the angular momentum (spin) for a photon. The analyses of the state-vector function indicate that the macroscopic polarization of light is how to relate with microscopic parameters of a photon such as the probability amplitude and the phase.

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The exclusive carrier of photonics is photon, which is a kind of microscopic particles so that obeys the generalized Schrodinger equation, namely the motion equation for a photon. A novel state-vector function that satisfies the equation with three quantum conditions has been constructed, which possesses not only the energy and the momentum but also the angular momentum (spin) for a photon. The analyses of the state-vector function indicate that the macroscopic polarization of light is how to relate with microscopic parameters of a photon such as the probability amplitude and the phase.
On the basis of the generalized Schr?dinger equation， a novel state-vector function that obeys photon motion equation under three quantum conditions has been constructed for a photon in one dimension, which can describe completely the properties of a photon as a relativistic free particle, including its energy and momentum and spin angular momentum. The state-vector function not only defines microscopic parameters such as the probability amplitude and the phase for a photon, but also relates them with the macroscopic polarization of a light beam. As an example, it successfully explains the puzzling polarization problem of a light beam.
Based on the concept of classical phase,we formulate a new explanation for the quantum phase from the quantum mechanical point of view. The quantum phase is the canonically conjugate variable of an angular momentum operator,which corresponds to the angular position θ in an actual physical space with a classical reference frame,but it takes a complex exponential form eiθ ≡cosθ +i sinθ in the abstract Hilbert space of a quantum reference frame. This formulation is simply the famous Euler formula in a complex number field. In particular,when θ = π/2,the correlative quantum phase is a unitary pure imaginary number eiπ/2 ≡cos(π/2)+i sin(π/2) ≡ i. By using a photon state-vector function that is the general solution of photon Schrdinger equation and can completely describe a photon's behavior,we discuss the relationship between the angular momentum of a photon and the phase of the photon; we also analyze the intrinsic relationship between the macroscopic light wave phase and the microscopic photon phase.
In this chapter we build up the basic concepts of quantum mechanics using two simple examples, following a heuristic approach which is more inductive than deductive. We start with a familiar phenomenon, that of the polarization of light, which will allow us to introduce the necessary mathematical formalism. We show that the description of polarization leads naturally to the need for a two-dimensional complex vector space, and we establish the correspondence between a polarization state and a vector in this space, referred to as the space of polarization states. We then move on to the quantum description of photon polarization and illustrate the construction of probability amplitudes as scalar products in this space. The second example will be that of spin 1/2, where the space of states is again two-dimensional. We construct the most general states of spin 1/2 using rotational invariance. Finally, we introduce dynamics, which allows us to follow the time evolution of a state vector. The analogy with the polarization of light will serve as a guide to constructing the quantum theory of photon polarization, but no such classical analog is available for constructing the quantum theory for spin 1/2. In this case the quantum theory will be constructed without reference to any classical theory, using an assumption about the dimension of the space of states and symmetry principles. The polarization of light and photon polarization The polarization of an electromagnetic wave The polarization of light or, more generally, of an electromagnetic wave, is a familiar phenomenon related to the vector nature of the electromagnetic field. Let us consider a plane wave of monochromatic light of frequency ω propagating in the positive z direction.
We employ here the enhancement of the vector potential amplitude quantization at a single photon state. The analysis of the general solution of the vector potential, obtained by resolving Maxwell’s equations, implies that the amplitude is proportional to the angular frequency. The photon vector potential function αkλ(r,t) can be written in the plane wave representation satisfying the classical wave propagation equation, Schrödinger’s equation for the energy with the relativistic massless field Hamiltonian and a linear time-dependent equation for the vector potential amplitude operator. Thus, the vector potential αkλ(r,t) with the quantized amplitude may play the role of a real wave function for the photon in a nonlocal representation that can be suitably normalized. We then deduce that the amplitudes of the electric and magnetic fields, respectively, of a single free photon are proportional to the square of the angular frequency. This might open perspectives for the development of nondestructive photon detection methods based on the influence of the electric and/or magnetic fields of photons on the energy levels of atoms and molecules.
Based on Born's statistical interpretation for the normalized wave function, the twin two-photon thought experiment is reexamined from point of view of quantum mechanics. The emphasis is no longer the pair of twin photons itself, but rather a group of photons with common attributes. All the photons have the characteristics of identical energy and angular momentum, but possess same probability in the opposite direction of momentum, that is to say, this is a group of photon collections, which have the same number in the opposite direction of momentum, while all other quantum characteristics are identical. Following the example of the previous procedure dealing with optical two-hole effect by use of quantum mechanics, the total normalized photonic state-vector function that described the twin two-photon thought experiment has been specifically constructed, which does not describe the entangled behavior of the two photons, but the probability of a single photon, and thus deduces the probability distribution of a photon in the space. When the total number of photons satisfies the statistical requirements to form a complete picture, some fringes of light and dark interval will be displayed. On the basis of retrospective historical origins of entanglement, the point of view of quantum mechanics about the twin two-photon thought experiment was reverted. The so-called EPR paradox, and the entangled two-photon state have been re-interpreted, and a new understanding of quantum information has been put forward.