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Quantum Physics of Light and Matter - Quantum Field Theory of Light
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This video deals with the quantization of the electromagnetic field introduced by Paul Dirac in 1927. The video is divided in 5 segments.
The first segment is a brief review of the Maxwell equations, which describe the space-time evolution of the electromagnetic field, i.e. the light. The second segment introduces the Coulomb gauge that is the mathematical tool used to simplify the theoretical description of the electromagnetic field. In the third segment the author gives a brief review of the electric and magnetic contributions to the total energy of the light, while the fourth segment discusses the quantization of the electromagnetic field following the approach proposed by Paul Dirac in 1927. The last segment gives technical details of the second quantization method of Dirac, which is based on ladder operators, i.e. creation and annihilation operators, acting of the Fock space.
This video is ideally suited for MSc or PhD students in Physics, Chemistry or Engineering. The viewer will learn the formalism of second quantization of light, which is a key tool of contemporary quantum field theory.
Introduction
Ideal for MSc or PhD student of Physics, Chemistry or Engineering, to learn the formalism of second quantization of light.
About The Author
Luca Salasnich is an Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics of Matter at University of Padova, Italy. He was previously a research scientist with the Italian National Research Council (CNR). Dr. Salasnich was awarded an MSc in Physics by the University of Padova in 1991, and his PhD in Theoretical Physics by the University of Florence in 1995. His fields of research are condensed matter theory and statistical physics, in particular nonlinear phenomena and macroscopic quantum effects (like superfluidity and superconductivity) in ultra-cold atomic gases and other many-body systems. At the University of Padova, Dr. Salasnich is a member of the Scientific Committee of Area 2 (Physical Sciences) and President of the Teaching Council for the BSc in Optics and Optometrics. He has written more than 130 scientific papers for international journals, with over 2500 citations.
About this video
- Author(s)
- Luca Salasnich
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63284-7
- Online ISBN
- 978-3-030-63284-7
- Total duration
- 36 min
- Publisher
- Springer, Cham
- Copyright information
- © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
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Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi to everyone. This is the video of Quantum Field Theory of Light. Here I will give an introduction of what of what you will find in this video. First, I will discuss the electromagnetic waves, which can be derived from the Maxwell equations. And, obviously, as you know, they are fully confirmed by experiments. Then I will discuss electromagnetic potentials, the scalar and the vector potentials, and the Coulomb gauge. Which is quite useful because, using the Coulomb gauge instead of using both electric and magnetic field, one can simply use the vector potential to describe the electromagnetic field.
Then I will consider the classical energy of the electromagnetic field and the quantization of this classical energy, performing the quantization of the single modes of this classical energy. And, in this way, we will derive a quantum Hamiltonian for the electromagnetic field. This quantum Hamiltonian involves ladder operators that are called also creation and annihilation operators, and we will discuss their main properties. Indeed, these ladder operators are crucial for the study of quantum field theory of light, and, more generally, for quantum field theory, in particular also for massive particles. We’ll say a few words also on this.