Angular momentum of electromagnetic pulses
Abstract
Electromagnetic pulses are shown to have an intrinsic angular momentum along the direction of the net momentum of the pulse, unchanged by Lorentz boosts along this direction, and invariant to change of spatial origin. This intrinsic angular momentum is evaluated (together with the energy and momentum) for two types of pulses based on a localized oscillatory solution of the wave equation. The Lorentz boost required to bring each pulse to its zero-momentum frame is evaluated analytically.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics
- Pub Date:
- March 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1088/1464-4258/6/3/021
- Bibcode:
- 2004JOptA...6S.128L
- Keywords:
-
- angular momentumelectromagnetic pulsesLorentz transformations