Spin and Orbital Angular Momentum of Photons
Open accessAbstract
We consider the separation of the total angular momentum of the electromagnetic field into a "spin" and an "orbital" part. Though this separation is normally considered to be unphysical and not observable, we argue that both members in the separation are separately measurable quantities. However, the commutation relations for the associated quantum operators reveal that neither of them is an angular-momentum operator.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The separation of total angular momentum into spin and orbital parts is physically meaningful, but neither the spin nor the orbital component is by itself an angular momentum; both are generators of rotations constrained by the requirement that rotated fields be transverse.
“The resolution of this apparent contradiction is that the separation of the total angular momentum into spin and orbital parts is indeed a physical one, but that neither the spin nor the orbital components is, by itself, an angular momentum [94, 95]. Both the spin and orbital parts are the generators of rotations that are constrained by the requirement that the rotated fi elds must be transverse [”
From Optical Dirac equation (2014) · cites this paper as [95]
Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 12 · Cited by 212
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- COHEN-TANNOUDJI C., DUPONT-ROC J. and GRYNBERG G., Photons and A t o m (Wiley, New York,
- SIMMONS J. W. and GUTTMANN M. J., States, Waves, and Photons (Addison-Wesley, Reading,
- Authors
- Enk, S. J. V., & Nienhuis, G.
- Affiliations
- Leiden University (NL)
- Venue
- Europhysics Letters (EPL)
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 1994-03-01
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 497-501
- ISSN
- 0295-5075 (ISSN-L)
- 1286-4854
- OpenAlex
- W1992628919
- Cited by
- 212
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 1.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Europhysics Letters (EPL) (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Strong Light-Matter Interactions
- Keywords
- photon spin, orbital angular momentum, total angular momentum, electromagnetic fields, angular momentum operators, commutation relations
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
