SECOND QUANTIZATION

19

for all k, k , , , see Equation (1.32), and in executing the double sum over and it does not matter in which order one does this. The h.c. term in the second sum in Equation (1.62) is also zero, of course, because it is the Hermitian conjugate of the one we just considered apart from the order of the operators, but they commute as well. The symmetry argument (luckily) does not hold for the rst sum in Equation (1.62) because that sum involves the product of a (k)a (k) and its h.c. These do not commute, see Equation (1.31), so the trick employed in Equation (1.63) does not work for the rst sum. Using Equation (1.50) for the dot product of the polarization vectors and inserting the factor 1/(4 ) from Equation (1.58) we get Pem = = =
k, 1 2 1 2 k,

a (k)a (k) + a (k)a (k) k +1 k

1 2

(1.64) (1.65) (1.66) (1.67)

k, a (k)a (k)

N (k) + N (k) k
k,

where we have used the commutation relations Equation (1.31) in Equation (1.64) and introduced the number operator N (k) from Equation (1.35) in Equation (1.65). The zero point momentum evident in Equation (1.66) sums to zero if k has no preferred direction for an electromagnetic eld in a vacuum, a reasonable assumption. We evade the zero point momentum, contrary to the case for the energy, see Equation (1.57). The result in Equation (1.67) is equally remarkable as the result in Equation (1.57) for the same reasons. It shows that the momentum of the electromagnetic eld is quantized, conrming that we may speak of photons. The quantum of momentum is k ( k really) where k was rst introduced in the plane wave solutions of the wave Equation (1.21). The vector k derives its physical meaning from that expression: |k| is the wave vector with magnitude 2/. We conclude that the momentum k of a photon is equal to 2/ or p = h/, the deBroglie relation. We can use the Einstein relation m2 = E2 p2 to calculate the mass of the photon. Using E = k and p = k we nd m2 = 0. This is as expected because a particle can travel with the speed of light (in a vacuum) only if it is massless. Also here we see that the choice of pre-factor in Equation (1.29) and Equation (1.30) is a good one because it leads again to a result in agreement with experiment.

1.2.4 Polarization and Spin

The polarization factors (k) and its complex conjugate dene the polarization as discussed earlier. A photon with momentum k along the z-axis that