Operator for describing polarization states of a photon in terms of Riemann-Silberstein quantized electromagnetic vector

H. Y. Fan; Q. Y. Liu

doi:10.1007/s100530050050

EPJ

a
b
c
d
e
ap
st
h
plus
ds
pv
ti
qt
am
n

2024 Impact factor 1.5

Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics

Eur. Phys. J. D 8, 399-402 (2000)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050050

Operator for describing polarization states of a photon in terms of Riemann-Silberstein quantized electromagnetic vector ^*

H. Y. Fan¹^,2^,3^,4 and Q. Y. Liu⁴

¹ CCAST (World Laboratory), P.O. Box 8730, 100080, Beijing, P.R. China
² Department of Applied Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, P.R. China
³ Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P.R. China
⁴ International Center for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, 34100 Trieste, Italy

Received: 8 January 1999
Revised: 26 July 1999
Published online: 15 March 2000

Abstract

Based on the quantized electromagnetic field described by the Riemann-Silberstein complex vector ${\bf F}$ , we construct the eigenvector set of ${\bf F}$ , which makes up an orthonormal and complete representation. In terms of ${\bf F}$ we then introduce a new operator which can describe the relative ratio of the left-handed and right-handed polarization states of a polarized photon. In ${\bf F'}$ s eigenvector basis the operator manifestly exhibits a behaviour which is similar to a phase difference between two orientations of polarization of a light beam in classical optics.