Inexplicability of Beth's experiment within the framework of Maxwell's electrodynamics

It is shown that the electromagnetic field in the well-known Beth's experiment contains no linear momentum. This means that the angular momentum of the field in Beth's experiment is zero, since the angular momentum, by definition, is the moment of the linear momentum. Nevertheless, the hal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of modern optics Vol. 68; no. 21; pp. 1181 - 1186
Main Author Khrapko, R. I.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Taylor & Francis 15.12.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
75.10.Hk
Angular momentum
Classical spin
Electrodynamics
Electromagnetic fields
Electromagnetism
Experiments
field theory
Wave plates
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Summary:It is shown that the electromagnetic field in the well-known Beth's experiment contains no linear momentum. This means that the angular momentum of the field in Beth's experiment is zero, since the angular momentum, by definition, is the moment of the linear momentum. Nevertheless, the half-wave plate in Beth's experiment receives an angular momentum from the field, which, by definition, does not have this angular momentum. This means that the definition of the angular momentum of an electromagnetic field should be changed to explain Beth's experiment. The angular momentum of an electromagnetic field contains a spin term that does not depend on the linear momentum.
ISSN:0950-0340
1362-3044
DOI:10.1080/09500340.2021.1981473