arXiv · cond-mat/9907080
Radiative transfer theory for vacuum fluctuations
Abstract
A semiclassical kinetic theory is presented for the fluctuating photon flux emitted by a disordered medium in thermal equilibrium. The kinetic equation is the optical analog of the Boltzmann-Langevin equation for electrons. Vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field provide a new source of fluctuations in the photon flux, over and above the fluctuations due to scattering. The kinetic theory in the diffusion approximation is applied to the super-Poissonian noise due to photon bunching and to the excess noise due to beating of incident radiation with the vacuum fluctuations.
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E. G. Mishchenko, C. W. J. Beenakker. 1999-10-01. Radiative transfer theory for vacuum fluctuations. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.83.5475
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