This article is cited in 20 papers

METHODOLOGICAL NOTES

Photons in a waveguide (some thought experiments)

L. A. Rivlin

Moscow State Technical University of Radioengineering, Electronics and Automation

Abstract: A set of thought experiments with guided waves (as the simplest example of spatially localized fields) shows that photons occupying a waveguide mode possess all the characteristics of the nonzero inertial and gravitational rest mass. The corresponding quantity originates from the standing-wave component of the field and is merely an equivalent of the real energy from the 'raking up' of zero-point vacuum fluctuations from all unbounded space. It is impossible to distinguish this quantity from the standard concept of mass. This conclusion is valid for photons of any real spatially bounded fields. Two different classes of resonances with boson- and fermion-like features arise in waveguide ring structures depending on their field topology. The heuristic prospects for these observations are assessed.

PACS: 03.65.Bz, 12.20.-m, 42.50.-p

Received: December 31, 1997

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0167.199703g.0309

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 1997, 40:3, 291–303

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