2020/10/01 by Chun-Fang Li, Li, Chun-Fang
Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2010.00241
The purpose of this paper is to derive the photon spin and to deduce its properties from a pair of quantum equations for the photon. To this end, Darwin's equations are reinterpreted so as to meet the need of the quantum mechanics of the photon. It is found that the photon wavefunction transforms under Lorentz transformation as a spinor. The relativistic nature of the photon is expressed through a constraint equation on the wavefunction in such a way that the wave equation, which takes on the form of the Schrödinger equation, is not Lorentz covariant unless the constraint equation is taken into account. The wave equation predicts the existence of a kind of spin, an intrinsic degree of freedom. But the constraint equation makes the spin nonlocal in the sense that no unique local density exists for the spin in position space. The nonlocality of the photon spin is a reflection of the nonlocality of the photon itself.