A photon density wavefunction
Fuente:
arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866918106442498048 |
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| author | Virally, Stéphane |
| author_facet | Virally, Stéphane |
| contents | Maxwell's equations in the vacuum can be formally cast in the form of Schrödinger's equation. Unfortunately, the vector to which this equation directly applies is not a wavefunction: its amplitude squared is not a probability density but the expected energy density of the field. Since we can count photons, there must be a more convincing wavefunction, derived from the EM field, whose amplitude squared is an expected photon density. Mandel proposed the second quantized version of such a wavefunction, but did not link it directly to the EM field. We show how this can be accomplished. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_16597 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A photon density wavefunction Virally, Stéphane Quantum Physics Maxwell's equations in the vacuum can be formally cast in the form of Schrödinger's equation. Unfortunately, the vector to which this equation directly applies is not a wavefunction: its amplitude squared is not a probability density but the expected energy density of the field. Since we can count photons, there must be a more convincing wavefunction, derived from the EM field, whose amplitude squared is an expected photon density. Mandel proposed the second quantized version of such a wavefunction, but did not link it directly to the EM field. We show how this can be accomplished. |
| title | A photon density wavefunction |
| topic | Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.16597 |