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Photon polarization; Poincarè group representations; massless particles

We present an operator approach to the description of photon polarization, based on Wigner’s concept of elementary relativistic systems. The theory of unitary representations of the Poincarè group, and of parity, is exploited to construct spinlike operators acting on the polarization states of a photon at each fixed energy momentum. The nontrivial topological features of these representations relevant for massless particles, and the departures from the treatment of massive finite spin representations are highlighted and addressed.

Arvind¹ N Mukunda^{1 2 3}

1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore - 560 012, India
2. Centre for Theoretical Studies and Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore - 560 012, India
3. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur, Bangalore - 560 064, India

Published

November 1996

Manuscript received

27 July 1996

Manuscript revised

16 October 1996