Angular momentum of a circularly polarized light beam

It is shown that the Maxwell electrodynamics cannot explain the existence of an angular momentum flux in a circularly polarized light beam which has no the phase structure. The fact is that such a beam contains a small rotating electromagnetic mass and, accordingly, contains an angular momentum directed along the beam axis, but this rotating mass has no speed in the direction of the beam axis. Therefore, this angular momentum is not transferred along the beam axis, and there is no flow of this angular momentum along the beam axis. We show the angular momentum flux in such a beam is contained in the main mass of the beam, which does not rotate. This angular momentum flux is a spin flux and is described by the spin tensor. Likewise, taking spin into account is required to explain the classical Beth experiment and other experiments.

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Publication Details

Journal
Heliyon
Published
2024-09-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37993
Primary Topic
Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Angular momentum of a circularly polarized light beam

Radi I. Khrapko
Heliyon
Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
article

Angular momentum of a circularly polarized light beam

Radi I. Khrapko
article en

Abstract

It is shown that the Maxwell electrodynamics cannot explain the existence of an angular momentum flux in a circularly polarized light beam which has no the phase structure. The fact is that such a beam contains a small rotating electromagnetic mass and, accordingly, contains an angular momentum directed along the beam axis, but this rotating mass has no speed in the direction of the beam axis. Therefore, this angular momentum is not transferred along the beam axis, and there is no flow of this angular momentum along the beam axis. We show the angular momentum flux in such a beam is contained in the main mass of the beam, which does not rotate. This angular momentum flux is a spin flux and is described by the spin tensor. Likewise, taking spin into account is required to explain the classical Beth experiment and other experiments.

HeliyonVol. 10(19)
Moscow Aviation Institute (RU)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 86%
Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
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