The question "What is a photon?" motivates an analysis of the interface between quantum field theory and
non-relativistic quantum mechanics (QM). Despite the predictive success of quantum field theory, it retains
many non-relativistic concepts while throwing out the one aspect of QM that might give a spatially-well-defined
answer to the original question. A novel approach to quantizing relativistic wavefunctions is then discussed,
leading to an identification of the electromagnetic vector potential as a possible single-photon wavefunction.
The key missing ingredient is a relativistically-correct measurement theory, in which a photon can be partially
constrained/measured everywhere along a closed 3-D hypersurface in 4-D space-time.
The San Jose State University Physics Department, located in Silicon Valley, provides students with a high quality education in optics and provides local high-tech industry and government laboratories with a partner for optics- related research and development projects. There are approximately 50 undergraduate majors and 20 graduate (M.S.) students in the Department. Core courses leading to the B.S. in Physics are offered with upper division courses in Modern Optics, Lasers and Applications, Advanced Optics Lab, Advanced Instrumentation Lab, and Individual Studies as well as graduate courses in Electro-optics, Graduate Optics, Optical Metrology, and Laser Spectroscopy. Graduates are well prepared to enter the lasers and optics industry or go onto graduate school. A 4000 square-foot lab in the Science Building houses the Institute for Modern Optics, an organized research unit in the College of Science. One of the major goals of the Institute is to facilitate collaborative research between the local optics industry and the faculty and students at SJSU. The Department is presently developing a new biophotonics lab for single molecule studies with a dual beam optical tweezers already operational. A National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program grant provides research support for undergraduates.
We have examined the interaction of deuterium clusters with high intensity, ultrafast laser radiation. Upon irradiation a hot plasma is created with a sufficient temperature to produce nuclear fusion. We have seen that larger clusters produce more fusion neutrons than small er clusters, consistent with a Coulomb explosion model. Fusion yields is currently limited by propagation effects. Using interferometric imaging we have examined the laser propagation and found that the laser energy is absorbed before it penetrates to the center of the gas jet.
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