| Issue |
EPL
Volume 90, Number 4, May 2010
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 45001 | |
| Number of page(s) | 4 | |
| Section | Physics of Gases, Plasmas and Electric Discharges | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/90/45001 | |
| Published online | 04 June 2010 | |
Photon orbital angular momentum and mass in a plasma vortex
1
Department of Astronomy, University of Padova - vicolo dell' Osservatorio 3, I-33122 Padova, Italy, EU
2
Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Physics in Space, Ångström Laboratory - P. O. Box 537, SE-751 21, Uppsala, Sweden, EU
3
IPFN and CFIF, Instituto Superior Técnico - Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal, EU
Corresponding author: bt@irfu.se
We analyse the Anderson-Higgs mechanism of photon mass acquisition in a plasma and study the contribution to the mass from the orbital angular momentum acquired by a beam of photons when it crosses a spatially structured charge distribution. To this end we apply Proca-Maxwell equations in a static plasma with a particular spatial distribution of free charges, notably a plasma vortex, that is able to impose orbital angular momentum (OAM) onto light. In addition to the mass acquisition of the conventional Anderson-Higgs mechanism, we find that the photon acquires an additional mass from the OAM and that this mass reduces the Proca photon mass.
PACS: 52.35.We – Plasma vorticity / 14.70.Bh – Photons / 03.50.De – Classical electromagnetism, Maxwell equations
© EPLA, 2010
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