The Expansion of Electromagnetic Fields and Potentials in the Wave Functions of the Photon. The Exact Electromagnetic Matrix Elements and Selection Rules for Hydrogenic Atoms.

摘要

The expansion of the unquantized electromagnetic fields and vector and scalar potentials in terms of the wave functions of the relativistic photon is reviewed and extended. Both linear and angular momentum bases are used for the photon wave functions. After second quantizing the electromagnetic field,the results are applied to the obtaining of the exact matrix elements (that is,with retardation taken into account exactly) and selection rules for the emission of photons by hydrogenic atoms. The dichotomy between the photon and wave picture of electromagnetic radiation is discussed and resolved. Furthermore,the most general vector and scaler potentials are obtained through the use of the eigenfunctions of the curl operator. (Author)