polarization states of a photon
- From: zak <b.zarychta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 23:32:40 +0000 (UTC)
Considering photons individualy they may be considered as having pure
states of helicity = +\- 1 or right\left circularly polarised.
All other polarisations of light are then considered as superpositions
of these two states.
In considering scattering of a photon by an electron i have a matrix
element where there are selection rules for the allowed scattering of
one of which corresponds to the \mu quantum number of the electron
such that \mu_i & \mu_f are the initial and final \mu states of the
electron. The selection rules correspond to
\deta_{\mu_i, \mu_f} = 0, \pm 1
I think the following is correct however i am a little confused.
if $\delta_{\mu_c \mu_b} = +1$ then left circularly polarised photons
are scattered.
if $\delta_{\mu_c \mu_b} = -1$ then right circularly polarised photons
are scattered.
if $\delta_{\mu_c \mu_b} = 0$ then all linear polarisations of photons
are scattered.
is it correct simply to insert a linear polarisation vecotr in a
matrix element describing the scattering process, or should the linear
polarisation be decomposed into it's +\- parts.
I'm having difficulty visualising a photon of mixed polarisation ie +
& - parts in a scattering process
Zak
.
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