Theoretical Physics Seminar: Garth Jones (UEA)

A QED approach to studying energy and angular momentum transfer processes in atomic and molecular systems

Quantum electrodynamics treats both matter and light at the quantum mechanical level. After a brief introduction to non-relativistic QED, I will describe some of our recent work including how a vector spherical formulation of photonic fields may be useful in understanding  the transfer of energy and angular momentum between multipoles. I will also discuss a new delocalized mechanism of spontaneous parametric down-conversion that may have an impact on how ghost imaging is interpreted. Finally I will discuss some recent controversies related to quantum optical Hamiltonians.