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arxiv: quant-ph/0408017 · v1 · submitted 2004-08-03 · 🪐 quant-ph

Angular momentum and the geometrical gauge of localized photon staes

classification 🪐 quant-ph
keywords gaugeangularchoicelocalizedmathbfmomentumphotonpotential
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Localized photon states have non-zero angular momentum that varies with the non-unique choice of a transverse basis and is changed by gauge transformations of the geometric vector potential $\mathbf{a}$. The position operator must depend on the choice of gauge, but a complete gauge transformation of a physically distinct state has no observable effects. The potential $\mathbf{a}$ has a Dirac string singularity that is related to an optical vortex of the electric field.

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