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Cai-Dong Xiong

Publications and source records attributed to Cai-Dong Xiong.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2016

The effect of gravitational spin-orbit coupling on the circular photon orbit in the Schwarzschild geometry

The (1, 0)+(0, 1) representation of the group SL(2, C) provides a six-component spinor equivalent to the electromagnetic field tensor. By means of the (1, 0)+(0, 1) description, one can treat the photon field in curved spacetime via spin connection and the tetrad formalism, which is of great advantage to study the gravitational spin-orbit coupling of photons. Once the gravitational spin-orbit coupling is taken into account, the traditional radius of the circular photon orbit in the Schwarzschild geometry should be replaced with two different radiuses corresponding to the photons with the helicities of +1 and -1, respectively. Owing to the splitting of energy levels induced by the spin-orbit coupling, photons (from Hawking radiations, say) escaping from a Schwarzschild black hole are partially polarized, provided that their initial velocities possess nonzero tangential components.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2012

Time operator in QFT with Virasoro constraints

Time operator is studied on the basis of field quantization, where the difficulty stemming from Pauli's theorem is circumvented by borrowing ideas from the covariant quantization of the bosonic string, i.e., one can remove the negative energy states by imposing Virasoro constraints. Applying the index theorem, one can show that in a different subspace of a Fock space, there is a different self-adjoint time operator. However, the self-adjoint time operator in the maximal subspace of the Fock space can also represent the self-adjoint time operator in the other subspaces, such that it can be taken as the single, universal time operator. Furthermore, a new insight on Pauli's theorem is presented.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2012

Comment on "Uncertainty Relation for Photons"

In a recent interesting Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 140401 (2012)] I. Bialynicki-Birula and his coauthor have derived the uncertainty relation for the photons in three dimensions. However, some of their arguments are problematical, and this impacts their conclusion.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2011

Photonic zitterbewegung and its interpretation

In term of the volume-integrated Poynting vector, we present a quantum field-theory investigation on the zitterbewegung (ZB) of photons, and show that this ZB occurs only in the presence of virtual longitudinal and scalar photons. To present a heuristic explanation for such ZB, by assuming that the space time is sufficiently close to the flat Minkowski space, we show that the gravitational interaction can result in the ZB of photons.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2011

Zitterbewegung and its significance for the Hawking radiation

The Hawking radiation can be viewed from very different perspectives, not all of which can be proved to be rigorously equivalent to one another. On the other hand, an old interest in the zitterbewegung (ZB) of the Dirac electron has recently been rekindled by the investigations on spintronics and graphene, etc. In this letter, we show that, if particles emitted by black holes are electrons or positrons, one can also regard the Hawking radiation as a ZB process.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2011

Average and instantaneous velocities of energy of evanescent modes

Many theoretical and experimental investigations have presented a conclusion that evanescent electromagnetic modes can superluminally propagate. However, in this paper, we show that the average energy velocity of evanescent modes inside a cut-off waveguide is always less than or equal to the velocity of light in vacuum, while the instantaneous energy velocity can be superluminal, which does not violate causality according to quantum field theory: the fact that a particle can propagate over a space-like interval does preserve causality provided that here a measurement performed at one point cannot affect another measurement at a point separated from the first with a space-like interval.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2011

Field-theoretical space-time position operator of the Dirac electron

A field-theoretical space-time position operator can be properly introduced for the Dirac field, it plays the role of a generalized Noether charge associated with a local symmetry, and its second-quantized form shows that quantum fields possess zero-point time, which implies that a zero-point fluctuation of energy must be accompanied with a zero-point fluctuation of time, and then in agreement with the time-energy uncertainty principle. In practice, some possible physical effects owing to zero-point time remain to be found.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2009

Photon wave function and zitterbewegung

In terms of a photon wave function corresponding to the (1, 0)+(0, 1) representation of the Lorentz group, the radiation and Coulomb fields within a source-free region can be described unitedly by a Lorentz-covariant Dirac-like equation. In our formalism, the relation between the positive- and negative-energy solutions of the Dirac-like equation corresponds to the duality between the electric and magnetic fields, rather than to the usual particle-antiparticle symmetry. The zitterbewegung (ZB) of photons is studied via the momentum vector of the electromagnetic field, which shows that only in the presence of virtual longitudinal and scalar photons, the ZB motion of photons can occur, and its vector property is described by the polarization vectors of the electromagnetic field.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2009

Photon Wave Mechanics

In contrast to wave functions in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics interpreted as probability amplitudes, wave functions in relativistic quantum mechanics have generalized meanings such as charge-density amplitudes, energy-density amplitudes as well as particle-number density amplitudes, etc. Applying electromagnetic field intensities we construct a photon wave function, it corresponds to the (1,0)+(0,1) spinor representation of the electromagnetic field, and can be interpreted as the energy-density amplitude of photons outside a source. In terms of photon wave functions we develop photon wave mechanics, which provides us with a new quantum-mechanical description for photons outside a source.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Photons inside a waveguide as massive particles

In the paper, we show that there exists a close analogy between the behavior of de Broglie matter waves and that of electromagnetic waves inside a hollow waveguide, such that the guided photons can be treated as free massive particles subject to a relativistic quantum-mechanical equation. Inspired by the effective rest mass of guided photons and the zitterbewegung phenomenon of the Dirac electron, at variance with the well-known Higgs mechanism we present some different heuristic ideas on the origin of mass.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Arrival time in quantum field theory

Via the proper-time eigenstates (event states) instead of the proper-mass eigenstates (particle states), free-motion time-of-arrival theory for massive spin-1/2 particles is developed at the level of quantum field theory. The approach is based on a position-momentum dual formalism. Within the framework of field quantization, the total time-of-arrival is the sum of the single event-of-arrival contributions, and contains zero-point quantum fluctuations because the clocks under consideration follow the laws of quantum mechanics.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Investigation on the superluminality of evanescent modes via quantum Lorentz transformation

Applying the fact that guided photons inside a waveguide can be treated as massive particles, one can study the superluminality of evanescent modes via showing that a massive particle can propagate over a spacelike interval, which corresponds to quantum tunneling effects. For this purpose, we treat the particle as a quantum reference frame, while attach an inertia observer to a classical reference frame, and then quantize the formulae for the Lorentz transformation between the quantum and classical reference frames, from which we obtain the conclusion that, owing to the Heisenberg's uncertainty relation, the particle can propagate over a spacelike interval.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Quantum mechanical description of waveguides

In this paper, applying the spinor representation of the electromagnetic field, we present a quantum-mechanical description of waveguides. As an example of application, a potential qubit generated via photon tunneling is discussed.

physics.class-ph↗
arXiv2008

Zitterbewegung at the level of quantum field theory

Traditionally, the zitterbewegung (ZB) of the Dirac electron has just been studied at the level of quantum mechanics. Seeing that the fact that an old interest in ZB has recently been rekindled by the investigations on spintronic, graphene, and superconducting systems, etc., in this paper we present a quantum-field-theory investigation on ZB and obtain the conclusion that, the ZB of an electron arises from the influence of virtual electron-positron pairs (or vacuum fluctuations) on the electron.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Superluminal propagation of evanescent modes as a quantum effect

Contrary to mechanical waves, the two-slit interference experiment of single photons shows that the behavior of classical electromagnetic waves corresponds to the quantum mechanical one of single photons, which is also different from the quantum-field-theory behavior such as the creations and annihilations of photons, the vacuum fluctuations, etc. Owing to a purely quantum effect, quantum tunneling particles including tunneling photons (evanescent modes) can propagate over a spacelike interval without destroying causality. With this picture we conclude that the superluminality of evanescent modes is a quantum mechanical rather than a classical phenomenon.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2007

Another derivation of Weinberg's formula

To investigate how quantum effects might modify special relativity, we will study a Lorentz transformation between classical and quantum reference frames and express it in terms of the four-dimensional (4D) momentum of the quantum reference frame. The transition from the classical expression of the Lorentz transformation to a quantum-mechanical one requires us to symmetrize the expression and replace all its dynamical variables with the corresponding operators, from which we can obtain the same conclusion as that from quantum field theory (given by Weinberg's formula): owing to the Heisenberg's uncertainty relation, a particle (as a quantum reference frame) can propagate over a spacelike interval.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2007

Theoretical evidence for the superluminality of evanescent modes

Though both theoretical and experimental investigations have revealed the superluminal behavior of evanescent electromagnetic waves, there are many disputes about the physical meaning and validity of such superluminal phenomenon, which is due to the fact that the traditional investigations are based on the theory of tunneling time, and concerned with the problem of what the group velocity of evanescent waves means. In this paper, by studying the quantum probability amplitude for photons to propagate over a spacelike interval along an undersized waveguide, we present theoretical evidence for such superluminality.

quant-ph↗