Why do QM particles with l<S vanish in a classical radiation field?

Sourabh N
Messages
634
Reaction score
0
Off pg 977 MTW Gravitation :

Consider a classical radiation field whose associated quantum mechanical particles have integer spin S, and zero rest mass. Resolve that radiation field into spherical harmonics - i.e. into multipole moments. all components with l<S will vanish; in general those with l>=S will remain; and this is independent of the nature of the source!

Can anyone reason me why l<S would vanish?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The polarization or the multi pole moment of a radiation field is given by the number of degrees of freedom the field is capable of oscillating in. When the field is quantized the these degrees of freedom are identified with spin of the particle.

The long ranged forces EM and gravitation are dipole and quadrapole respectively. Correspond to to the fact that they are mediated by photons(spin 1) and gravitons(spin 2) particles.
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. In her YouTube video Bell’s Theorem Experiments on Entangled Photons, Dr. Fugate shows how polarization-entangled photons violate Bell’s inequality. In this Insight, I will use quantum information theory to explain why such entangled photon-polarization qubits violate the version of Bell’s inequality due to John Clauser, Michael Horne, Abner Shimony, and Richard Holt known as the...
Not an expert in QM. AFAIK, Schrödinger's equation is quite different from the classical wave equation. The former is an equation for the dynamics of the state of a (quantum?) system, the latter is an equation for the dynamics of a (classical) degree of freedom. As a matter of fact, Schrödinger's equation is first order in time derivatives, while the classical wave equation is second order. But, AFAIK, Schrödinger's equation is a wave equation; only its interpretation makes it non-classical...
I am not sure if this falls under classical physics or quantum physics or somewhere else (so feel free to put it in the right section), but is there any micro state of the universe one can think of which if evolved under the current laws of nature, inevitably results in outcomes such as a table levitating? That example is just a random one I decided to choose but I'm really asking about any event that would seem like a "miracle" to the ordinary person (i.e. any event that doesn't seem to...
Back
Top