Real and virtual photons in an external constant electromagnetic field of most general form
- P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Moscow 117924 (Russian Federation)
- Center for Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot 76100 (Israel)
The photon behavior in an arbitrary superposition of constant magnetic and electric fields is considered on most general grounds based on the first principles like Lorentz, gauge, charge, and parity invariance. We make model-independent and approximation-independent, but still rather informative, statements about the behavior that the requirement of causal propagation prescribes to massive and massless branches of dispersion curves, and describe the way the eigenmodes are polarized. We find, as a consequence of Hermiticity in the transparency domain, that adding a smaller electric field to a strong magnetic field in parallel to the latter causes enhancement of birefringence. We find the magnetic field produced by a point electric charge far from it--a manifestation of magnetoelectric phenomenon. We establish degeneracies of the polarization tensor that--under special kinematical conditions--occur due to space-time symmetries of the vacuum left after the external field is imposed.
- OSTI ID:
- 21413235
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 81, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.81.125008; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
APPROXIMATIONS
BIREFRINGENCE
C INVARIANCE
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DISPERSIONS
ELECTRIC CHARGES
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRIC GROUNDS
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
GAUGE INVARIANCE
LORENTZ INVARIANCE
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES
OPACITY
P INVARIANCE
PARITY
PHOTONS
POLARIZATION
SPACE-TIME
SYMMETRY
BOSONS
CALCULATION METHODS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
MASSLESS PARTICLES
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
REFRACTION
SIMULATION