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Hodgson, D., Southall, J., Purdy, R. et al. (1 more author) (2021) Local photons. [Preprint - arXiv]
Abstract
The classical free-space solutions of Maxwell's equations for light propagation in one dimension include wave packets of any shape that travel at the speed of light. This includes highly-localised wave packets that remain localised at all times. Motivated by this observation, this paper builds on recent work by Southall et al. [J. Mod. Opt. 68, 647 (2021)] and shows that a local description of the quantised electromagnetic field, which supports such solutions and which must overcome several no-go theorems, is indeed possible. Starting from the assumption that the basic building blocks of photonic wave packets are so-called bosons localised in position (blips), we identify the relevant Schrödinger equation and construct Lorentz-covariant electric and magnetic field observables. In addition we show that our approach simplifies to the standard description of quantum electrodynamics when restricted to a subspace of states.
Metadata
Item Type: | Preprint |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Theoretical Physics (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Physics Teaching (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/M013243/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 23 Jan 2025 15:27 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jan 2025 15:27 |
Identification Number: | 10.48550/arxiv.2104.04499 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:222101 |
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