It is shown that the canonical quantum field theory of radiation based on the field theoretical generalization of a recently proposed [1] commutation relation between position and momentum operators of massless particles leads to zero vacuum energy. This may be considered as a step toward the solution of the cosmological constant problem at least for the electromagnetic (EM) field's contribution.
The adiabatic theorem is a fundamental result established in the early days of quantum mechanics, which states that a system can be kept arbitrarily close to the instantaneous ground state of its Hamiltonian if the latter varies in time slowly enough. The theorem has an impressive record of applications ranging from foundations of quantum field theory to computational recipes in molecular dynamics. In light of this success it is remarkable that a practicable quantitative understanding of what "slowly enough" means is limited to a modest set of systems mostly having a small Hilbert space. Here …
Non-canonical quantization is based on certain reducible representations of canonical commutation relations. Relativistic formalism for electromagnetic non-canonical quantum fields is introduced. Unitary representations of the Poincaré group at the level of fields and states are explicitly given. Multi-photon and coherent states are introduced. Statistics of photons in a coherent state is Poissonian if an appropriately defined thermodynamic limit is performed. Radiation fields having a correct $S$ matrix are constructed. The $S$ matrix is given by a non-canonical coherent-state displacement op…
We study the quantization of the Einstein-Hilbert action for a small true vacuum bubble without matter or scalar field. The quantization of action induces an extra term of potential called quantum potential in Hamilton-Jacobi equation, which gives expanding solutions including the exponential expansion solutions of the scalar factor $a$ for the bubble. We show that exponential expansion of the bubble continues with a short period (about a Planck time $t_p$), no matter whether the bubble is closed, flat or open. The exponential expansion ends spontaneously when the bubble becomes large, i.e., t…
It is currently believed that light quantum or the quantization of light energy is beyond classical physics and the picture of wave-particle duality, which was criticized by Einstein but attracted a number of experimental researches, is necessary for the description of light. We show in this paper, however, that the quantization of light energy in vacuum, which is the same as that in quantum electrodynamics, can be derived directly from the classical electromagnetic theory through the consideration of statistics based on classical physics. Therefore, the quantization of energy is an intrinsic …
Very recently we present a theory [Wei-long She, Chin. Phys. 14, 2514(2005); Online: http://www.jop.org/journals/cp; http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0512097] to show that the quantization of light energy in vacuum can be derived directly from classical electromagnetic theory through the consideration of statistics based on classical physics and reveal that the quantization of energy is an intrinsic property of light as a classical electromagnetic wave and has no need of being related to particles. In this theory a key concept of stability of statistical distribution was involved. Here is a note …
The Unruh effect can be correctly treated only by using the Minkowski quantization and a model of a "particle" detector, not by using the Rindler quantization. The energy produced by a detector accelerated only for a short time can be much larger than the energy needed to change the velocity of the detector. Although the measuring process lasts an infinite time, the production of the energy can be qualitatively explained by a time-energy uncertainty relation.
The existence of irreducible field fluctuations in vacuum is an important prediction of quantum theory. These fluctuations have many observable consequences, like the Casimir effect which is now measured with good accuracy and agreement with theory, provided that the latter accounts for differences between real experiments and the ideal situation considered by Casimir. But the vacuum energy density calculated by adding field mode energies is much larger than the density observed around us through gravitational phenomena. This ``vacuum catastrophe'' is one of the unsolved problems at the interf…
We study the accelerated motion of mirrors and the photonic Unruh effect. The solutions of Maxwell's equations with appropriate boundary conditions in Rindler coordinates are found. The canonical quantization of the field is carried out properly. Important consequences arise from the presence of mirrors or polarizers. It is shown that a single reflective surface produces frequency quantization due to Dirichlet conditions applied to the $-1/(αx)^2$ anomalous potential for non-inertial observers. The number of photons per accelerated mode is estimated via Hankel functions.
This is the current form of lecture notes on my approach to field quantization. I explain on a simple scalar-field model the physical motivation and show some preliminary applications (field produced by a pointlike charge, the vacuum-to-vacuum loop diagram, the Casimir presure). The approach is based on an appropriate construction of a representation of harmonic-oscillator Lie algebra and a sequential definition of Dirac deltas.
Some of the well-known effects regarding the vacuum are revisited under the formalism of the imaginary-time field theory. From these effects, they could imply the existence of one thermal vacuum in different circumstances. The imaginary-time hamiltonian of the vacuum is found to provide not only exact distribution functions in the calculations of the Casimir effect and the Van der Waals force but also cutoff functions. The thermal bath for the Unruh effect is constructed from the imaginary-time Green function. From the field theory in the curved space-time, field quantizations are defined acco…
We analyse a gedankenexperiment previously considered by Mari et al. that involves quantum superpositions of charged and/or massive bodies ("particles") under the control of the observers, Alice and Bob. In the electromagnetic case, we show that the quantization of electromagnetic radiation (which causes decoherence of Alice's particle) and vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field (which limits Bob's ability to localize his particle to better than a charge-radius) both are essential for avoiding apparent paradoxes with causality and complementarity. We then analyze the gravitational ve…
The quantization of the electromagnetic field in vacuum is presented without reference to lagrangean quantum field theory. The equal time commutators of the fields are calculated from basic principles. A physical discussion of the commutators suggest that the electromagnetic fields are macroscopic emergent properties of more fundamental physical system: the photons.
We provide a full quantization of the vacuum Gowdy model with local rotational symmetry. We consider a redefinition of the constraints where the Hamiltonian Poisson-commutes with itself. We then apply the canonical quantization program of loop quantum gravity within an improved dynamics scheme. We identify the exact solutions of the constraints and the physical observables, and we construct the physical Hilbert space. It is remarkable that quantum spacetimes are free of singularities. New quantum observables naturally arising in the treatment partially codify the discretization of the geometry…
The paper is an extension of quant-ph/9912102. The new framework is tested on the 2-photon spontaneous emission and blackbody radiation. The new effects are rather subtle. The probability of the 2-photon emission is shown to consist of a product of several terms: One which is identical to this from standard quantum optics and the remaining ones formally resembling detector inefficiencies (here arising from nontrivial vacuum structure). The blackbody distribution is indistinguishable from the Planck law for T<T_{critical} but for T>T_{critical} the maximum of the distribution gets lowered and s…
A new scheme of field quantization is proposed. Instead of associating with different frequencies different oscillators we begin with a single oscillator that can exist in a superposition of different frequencies. The idea is applied to the electromagnetic radiation field. Using the standard Dirac-type mode-quantization of the electromagnetic field we obtain several standard properties such as coherent states or spontaneous and stimulated emission. As opposed to the standard approach the vacuum energy is finite and does not have to be removed by any ad hoc procedure.
An electron-positron pair ($e^- e^+$) is created in vacuum above a critical electric field strength $E_{crt}$ which is quite large in the laboratory scale. The photon, thus the field, annihilates in the pair creation process. Here, we question if the pair creation (at $E=E_{crt}$) introduces a boundary condition in the electromagnetic state, e.g., similar to the one in angular or linear momentum. We show that introduction of such a reasonable condition yields approximately the well-known magnetic flux quanta which normally one obtains using different arguments.
Electromagnetic fields are quantized in manifestly covariant way by means of a class of reducible representations of CCR. $A_a(x)$ transforms as a Hermitian four-vector field in Minkowski four-position space (no change of gauge), but in momentum space it splits into spin-1 massless photons (optics) and two massless scalars (similar to dark matter). Unitary dynamics is given by point-form interaction picture, with minimal-coupling Hamiltonian constructed from fields that are free on the null-cone boundary of the Milne universe. SL(2,C) transformations and dynamics are represented unitarily in p…
We study spontaneous emission from a rubidium atom into the fundamental and higher-order modes of a vacuum-clad ultrathin optical fiber. We show that the spontaneous emission rate depends on the magnetic sublevel, the type of modes, the orientation of the quantization axis, and the fiber radius. We find that the rate of spontaneous emission into the TE modes is always symmetric with respect to the propagation directions. Directional asymmetry of spontaneous emission into other modes may appear when the quantization axis does not lie in the meridional plane containing the position of the atom. …
We present a consistent, generally covariant quantization of light for non-vacuum birefringent, Lorentz-symmetry breaking electrodynamics in the context of the Standard Model Extension. We find that the number of light quanta in the field is not frame independent, and that the interaction of the quantized field with matter is necessarily birefringent. We also show that the conventional Lorenz gauge condition used to restrict the photon-mode basis to solutions of the Maxwell equations must be weakened to consistently describe Lorentz symmetry violation.
A suitable deformation of the Hopf algebra of the creation and annihilation operators for a complex scalar field, initially quantized in Minkowski space--time, induces the canonical quantization of the same field in a generic gravitational background. The deformation parameter q turns out to be related to the gravitational field. The entanglement of the quantum vacuum appears to be robust against interaction with the environment.
The quantum vacuum contribution to Berry's geometric phase of photon fields inside a noncoplanarly curved (coiled) fiber is considered by means of the second-quantization formulation. It is shown that the quantum vacuum Berry's phases of left- and right-handed circularly polarized light have the equal magnitudes but opposite signs, and are therefore eliminated entirely by each other. In order to realize such a novel vacuum effect, a scheme to separate the quantum vacuum Berry's phase of one polarized light from another by using the chiral medium fiber is suggested. We think the present study m…
We present a Gupta-Bleuler quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field in time-dependent dielectric media. Starting from the Maxwell equations, a generalization of the Lorentz gauge condition adapted to time varying dielectrics is derived. Using this gauge, a Gupta-Bleuler approach to quantize all polarizations of the radiation field and the corresponding constraint condition are introduced. This new approach is different from the quantized electromagnetic field in vacuum in the sense that here the contributions of unphysical photons cannot be thoroughly eliminated, which further lead to…
Motivated by the work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 220404 (2002)] for detecting the vacuum-induced Berry phases with two-mode Jaynes-Cummings models (JCMs), we show here that, for a parameter-dependent single-mode JCM, certain atom-field states also acquire the photon-number-dependent Berry phases after the parameter slowly changed and eventually returned to its initial value. This geometric effect related to the field quantization still exists, even the filed is kept in its vacuum state. Specifically, a feasible Ramsey interference experiment with cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system is desig…
The path integral quantization method is applied to a relativistically covariant version of the Hopfield model, which represents a very interesting mesoscopic framework for the description of the interaction between quantum light and dielectric quantum matter, with particular reference to the context of analogue gravity. In order to take into account the constraints occurring in the model, we adopt the Faddeev-Jackiw approach to constrained quantization in the path integral formalism. In particular we demonstrate that the propagator obtained with the Faddeev-Jackiw approach is equivalent to th…
