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Progress in Electromagnetic Research Symposium

Quantum electromagnetics: A new look

Weng Cho Chew, Anna Yan Liu, C. Salazar-Lazaro, Wei E. I. Sha

Published Aug 1, 2016• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Quantization of the electromagnetic field (called quantum electromagnetics here) has been a fascinating and important subject since its introduction by Dirac in 1927. However, this knowledge is often inaccessible to technologists such as engineers. This subject will be discussed in its simplest terms so that it can be easily understood by a larger community of researchers. To this end, a new way of motivating Hamiltonian mechanics is presented. Furthermore, a novel way of deriving the quantum equations of motion for electromagnetics and Maxwell's equations is presented.

DOI
10.1109/piers.2016.7734514

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Quantization of the electromagnetic field (called quantum electromagnetics here) has been a fascinating and important subject since its introduction by Dirac in 1927. However, this knowledge is often inaccessible to technologists such as engineers. This subject will be discussed in its simplest terms so that it can be easily understood by a larger community of researchers. To this end, a new way of motivating Hamiltonian mechanics is presented. Furthermore, a novel way of deriving the quantum equations of motion for electromagnetics and Maxwell's equations is presented.
In this work, quantization of electromagnetic fields in a general anisotropic inhomogeneous media is considered. First, the classical Hamiltonian is derived. Once the Hamiltonian is derived, with it the classical equations of motion follow. Next, the fields are elevated to become quantum operators, for which conjugate pairs are endowed with commutators. Since as previously shown, such commutators induce functional derivatives, the quantum equations of motion can be easily derived. Next, the mode decomposition of the fields is demonstrated. Upon substitution into the classical Hamiltonian, each mode then behaves like a simple harmonic oscillator. These oscillators can then be elevated to become quantum harmonic oscillators. Both the traveling wave modes and the standing wave modes are discussed. Furthermore, the longitudinal modes are described. Finally, the case of impressed sources are considered, with the corresponding Hamiltonian and field quantization. The Green's functions for the linear system are presented. Finally, the quantum Maxwell's equations are derived. A short discussion on field-atom interaction is given.
We present a succinct way to quantize Maxwell's equations. We begin by discussing the random nature of quantum observables. Then we present the quantum Maxwell's equations and give their physical meanings. Due to the mathematical homomorphism between the classical and quantum cases [1], the derivation of quantum Maxwell's equations can be simplified. First, one needs only to verify that the classical equations of motion are derivable from a Hamiltonian by energy-conservation arguments. Then the quantum equations of motion follow due to homomorphism, which applies to sum-separable Hamiltonians. Hence, we first show the derivation of classical Maxwell's equations using Hamiltonian theory. Then the derivation of the quantum Maxwell's equations follows in an analogous fashion. Finally, we apply this quantization procedure to the dispersive medium case. (This article is written for the classical electromagnetic community assuming little knowledge of quantum theory, an introduction of which can be found in [2, Lecs. 38 and 39].)
The notion that the electromagnetic field is quantized is usually inferred from observations such as the photoelectric effect and the black-body spectrum. However accounts of the quantization of this field are usually mathematically motivated and begin by introducing a vector potential, followed by the imposition of a gauge that allows the manipulation of the solutions of Maxwell's equations into a form that is amenable for the machinery of canonical quantization. By contrast, here we quantize the electromagnetic field in a less mathematically and more physically motivated way. Starting from a direct description of what one sees in experiments, we show that the usual expressions of the electric and magnetic field observables follow from Heisenberg's equation of motion. In our treatment, there is no need to invoke the vector potential in a specific gauge and we avoid the commonly used notion of a fictitious cavity that applies boundary conditions to the field.
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.
The notion that the electromagnetic field is quantised is usually inferred from observations such as the photoelectric effect and the black-body spectrum. However accounts of the quantisation of this field are usually mathematically motivated and begin by introducing a vector potential, followed by the imposition of a gauge that allows the manipulation of the solutions of Maxwell's equations into a form that is amenable for the machinery of canonical quantisation. By contrast, here we quantise the electromagnetic field in a less mathematically and more physically-motivated way. Starting from a direct description of what one sees in experiments, we show that the usual expressions of the electric and magnetic field observables follow from Heisenberg's equation of motion. In our treatment, there is no need to invoke the vector potential in a specific gauge and we avoid the commonly-used notion of a fictitious cavity that applies boundary conditions to the field.
Quantum fields and quantization are concepts that come from quantum physics, the most intriguing physical theory developed in the twentieth century. In our work we would like to describe in a coherent and comprehensive way basic aspects of their mathematical structure. Most of our work is devoted to the simplest kinds of quantum fields and of quantization. We will mostly discuss mathematical aspects of free quantum fields. We will consider the quantization only on linear phase spaces. The reader will see that even within such a restricted scope the subject is rich, involves many concepts and has important applications, both to quantum theory and to pure mathematics. A distinguished role in our work will be played by representations of the canonical commutation and anti-commutation relations . Let us briefly discuss the origin and the meaning of these concepts.