Polarized Light and Quantum Spin

[ImaLooser]

Can there be EM radiation with spin zero?

I don't mean that the sum of all spins is zero, as it usually is. My thinking is that all light spins and usually the left and right component is of equal intensity.

Am I correct in thinking that light reflecting off of a suitable horizontal surface, like water, is horizontally polarized because the left and right spinning components reinforce on the horizontal plane and cancel in the vertical plane?

 

[mfb]

You can have a superposition of left- and right-handed photons with equal amplitude, this gives light without (net) spin, right. It has a linear polarization.

 

[ImaLooser]

You can have a superposition of left- and right-handed photons with equal amplitude, this gives light without (net) spin, right. It has a linear polarization.

OK, so now I'm trying to understand ordinary incoherent light. With polarized light the phase is defined. Is the phase undefined or superposed in ordinary unpolarized light?

 

[mfb]

Unpolarized light just consists of photons of all polarizations without any specific order.

 

[twofish-quant]

Can there be EM radiation with spin zero?

You can have EM radiation with net zero polarization. Individual photons however always have spin +1,-1. It has something to do with the fact that the photon is massless.

https://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-12373.html