Electromagnetic energy flow lines as possible paths of photons

Davidović, M.; Sanz, Ángel S.; Arsenović, D.; Božić, Mirjana; Miret‐Artés, Salvador

doi:10.1088/0031-8949/2009/t135/014009

Cited by 20 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In such a case from Maxwell's equations one obtains two independent sets of equations: one involving the H x and H z components of the magnetic field and the E y component of the electric field (commonly referred as E-polarization), and another involving E x , E z and H y (Hpolarization). As shown in [19], the electric and magnetic fields behind the grating are given by…”

Section: Eme Flow Lines -Average Photon Trajectories In Young's Intermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trajectory-based interpretation of Young's experiment, the Arago–Fresnel laws and the Poisson–Arago spot for photons and massive particles

Davidović¹,

Sanz²,

Božić³

et al. 2013

Phys. Scr.

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Abstract. We present a trajectory based interpretation for Young's experiment, the Arago-Fresnel laws and the Poisson-Arago spot. This approach is based on the equation of the trajectory associated with the quantum probability current density in the case of massive particles, and the Poynting vector for the electromagnetic field in the case of photons. Both the form and properties of the evaluated photon trajectories are in good agreement with the averaged trajectories of single photons observed recently in Young's experiment by Steinberg's group at the University of Toronto. In the case of the Arago-Fresnel laws for polarized light, the trajectory interpretation presented here differs from those interpretations based on the concept of "which-way" (or "which-slit") information and quantum erasure. More specifically, the observer's information about the slit that photons went through is not relevant to the existence of interference; what is relevant is the form of the electromagnetic energy density and its evolution, which will model consequently the distribution of trajectories and their topology. Finally, we also show that the distributions of end points of a large number of evaluated photon trajectories are in agreement with the distributions measured at the screen behind a circular disc, clearly giving rise to the Poisson-Arago spot.

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Section: Eme Flow Lines -Average Photon Trajectories In Young's Intermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Motivated by the works of Laukien [16], presented in [17], and Prosser [18], Davidović et al explained [19] the emergence of interference patterns in experiments with photons by determining electromagnetic energy (EME) flow lines behind an interference grating. The equation of such EME flow lines reads as…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trajectory-based interpretation of Young's experiment, the Arago–Fresnel laws and the Poisson–Arago spot for photons and massive particles

Davidović¹,

Sanz²,

Božić³

et al. 2013

Phys. Scr.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Given that light interference patterns arise from the accumulation of a large number of photons [6], they can be well described by standard (classical) electromagnetism. Following the Bohmian prescription, an analogous model can then be formulated, where the trajectories (electromagnetic energy flow lines) are obtained from the Poynting vector [7,8] and describe the spatial distribution of the electromagnetic energy density.…”

Section: What Are Bohmian Trajectories?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How does light move?

Davidović

Sanz

2013

Europhysics News

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“…The same happens in the case of photon interference when considering electromagnetic energy flow lines [12,42] determined by the Poynting vector (23). Analogously, a more complete picture of quantum interference with massive particles arises after considering flow lines of quantum mechanical probability density [24,25,27,34,39,42,47,[50][51][52]. These more complete pictures might contribute to the resolutions of dilemmas and paradoxes related to the question of the physical meaning of the photon wave function as well as for the quantum mechanical wave function of nonzero mass particles.…”

Section: Quantum Particle Trajectories -Flow Lines Of Quantum-mechanimentioning

confidence: 93%

Description of Classical and Quantum Interference in View of the Concept of Flow Line

2015

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Bohmian mechanics, a hydrodynamic formulation of quantum mechanics, relies on the concept of trajectory, which evolves in time in compliance with dynamical information conveyed by the wave function. Here this appealing idea is considered to analyze both classical and quantum interference, thus providing an alternative and more intuitive framework to understand the time-evolution of waves, either in terms of the flow of energy (for mechanical waves, sound waves, electromagnetic waves, for instance) or, analogously, the flow of probability (quantum waves), respectively. Furthermore, this procedure also supplies a more robust explanation of interference phenomena, which currently is only based on the superposition principle. That is, while this principle only describes how different waves combine and what effects these combinations may lead to, flow lines provide a more precise explanation on how the energy or probability propagate in space before, during and after the combination of such waves, without dealing with them separately (i.e., the combination or superposition is taken as a whole). In this sense, concepts such as constructive and destructive interference, typically associated with the superposition principle, physically correspond to more or less dense swarms of (energy or probability) flow lines, respectively. A direct consequence of this description is that, when considering the distribution of electromagnetic energy flow lines behind two slits, each one covered by a differently oriented polarizer, it is naturally found that external observers' information on the slit crossed by single photons (understood as energy parcels) is totally irrelevant for the existence of interference fringes, in striking contrast with what is commonly stated and taught.

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Electromagnetic energy flow lines as possible paths of photons

Cited by 20 publications

References 22 publications

Trajectory-based interpretation of Young's experiment, the Arago–Fresnel laws and the Poisson–Arago spot for photons and massive particles

Trajectory-based interpretation of Young's experiment, the Arago–Fresnel laws and the Poisson–Arago spot for photons and massive particles

How does light move?

Description of Classical and Quantum Interference in View of the Concept of Flow Line

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