Fundamentals of Photon Physics (eBook)

The photon, an abstract concept belonging to a global vacuum, only manifests itself duringinteraction with matter. Fundamentals of Photon Physics describes the richly faceted, basic theoryof photon-matter interaction, selecting a wide number of topics. Together with the author's bookLight -- The Physics of the Photon (CRC, 2014), both written on a scholarly level, the reader isgiven a comprehensive exposition of photon wave mechanics, quantum optics and quantumelectrodynamics (QED).Divided into 10 parts, the book begins by exploring the relation between photon wave mechanicsand quantum field theory. It then describes the theories of zero- and one-photon states andthat of bi-photons. After discussing conservation laws, Lagrangian formulations, geometricphase and topology, the author turns towards the theory of photon scattering, emphasizing adensity matrix operator approach and the role of microscopic extinction theorems. The booknext focuses on mesoscopic QED, devoting particular attention to collective jellium excitationsand photon-spin interactions. Special attention is given to the basics of the photon-magnoninteraction and nonlinear superconductor electrodynamics, including the nonlinear Meissnerrectification phenomenon, before studying the theory of transverse photons tied to (dressing)massive particles.The last three parts take the reader on a journey to topics usually not treated in books on photon-matter interaction. Beginning with photons in curved space-time structures and in spatiallycurved media, e.g. Mobius bands, the author discusses the extension of QED to the electro-weakinteraction at an introductory level. Fundamentals of Photon Physics ends with the establishmentof the set of isovector Maxwell equations in non-Abelian SO(3) gauge theory, leading tothe celebrated hedgehog monopole model.Ole Keller is professor emeritus of theoretical physics at Aalborg University, Denmark. He earned his Licentiate (~ PhD) degree in semiconductor physics from the Danish Technical University in Copenhagen in 1972, and the Doctor of Science degree from the University of Aarhus (1996). In 1989 he was appointed as the first professor in physics at Aalborg University by Margrethe Den Anden, queen of Denmark. The same year he was admitted to Kraks Blaa Bog, a prestigious Danish biographical dictionary which (citatum) "e;Includes men and women, whose life story could have an interest for a wider public"e;. He is a fellow of the Optical Society of America.He has written the books entitled Quantum Theory of Near-Field Electrodynamics (Springer, 2011) and LIGHT - The Physics of the Photon (CRC, 2014), as well as the monographs Local Fields in the Electrodynamics of Mesoscopic Media (Physics Reports, 1996) and On the Theory of Spatial Localization of Photons (Physics Reports, 2005). He is the editor of the books Nonlinear Optics in Solids (Springer, 1990), Studies in Classical and Quantum Nonlinear Optics (Nova Science, 1995) and Notions and Perspectives of Nonlinear Optics (World Scientific, 1996).In recent years he has carried out theoretical research in fundamental photon physics, microscopic few-photon diffraction, mesoscopic and Mobius band electrodynamics, and studied magnetic monopole theory based on QED and the isovector Maxwell equations in non-Abelian gauge symmetry.