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Main Authors: Khosravi, Farhad, Yang, Li-Ping, Das, Pronoy, Jacob, Zubin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.02143
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author Khosravi, Farhad
Yang, Li-Ping
Das, Pronoy
Jacob, Zubin
author_facet Khosravi, Farhad
Yang, Li-Ping
Das, Pronoy
Jacob, Zubin
contents Quantum electrodynamics (QED) deals with the relativistic interaction of bosonic gauge fields and fermionic charged particles. In QED, global conservation laws of angular momentum for light-matter interactions are well-known. However, local conservation laws, i.e. the conservation law of angular momentum at every point in space, remain unexplored. Here, we use the QED Lagrangian and Noether's theorem to derive a new local conservation law of angular momentum for Dirac-Maxwell fields in the form of the continuity relation for linear momentum. We separate this local conservation law into four coupled motion equations for spin and orbital angular momentum (OAM) densities. We introduce a helicity current tensor, OAM current tensor, and spin-orbit torque in the motion equations to shed light on on the local dynamics of spin-OAM interaction and angular momentum exchange between Maxwell-Dirac fields. We elucidate how our results translate to classical electrodynamics using the example of plane wave interference as well as a dual-mode optical fiber. Our results shine light on phenomena related to the spin of gauge bosons.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_02143
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle New Angular Momentum Conservation Laws for Gauge Fields in QED
Khosravi, Farhad
Yang, Li-Ping
Das, Pronoy
Jacob, Zubin
Quantum Physics
Quantum electrodynamics (QED) deals with the relativistic interaction of bosonic gauge fields and fermionic charged particles. In QED, global conservation laws of angular momentum for light-matter interactions are well-known. However, local conservation laws, i.e. the conservation law of angular momentum at every point in space, remain unexplored. Here, we use the QED Lagrangian and Noether's theorem to derive a new local conservation law of angular momentum for Dirac-Maxwell fields in the form of the continuity relation for linear momentum. We separate this local conservation law into four coupled motion equations for spin and orbital angular momentum (OAM) densities. We introduce a helicity current tensor, OAM current tensor, and spin-orbit torque in the motion equations to shed light on on the local dynamics of spin-OAM interaction and angular momentum exchange between Maxwell-Dirac fields. We elucidate how our results translate to classical electrodynamics using the example of plane wave interference as well as a dual-mode optical fiber. Our results shine light on phenomena related to the spin of gauge bosons.
title New Angular Momentum Conservation Laws for Gauge Fields in QED
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.02143