Spin-Orbital momentum decomposition and helicity exchange in a set of non-null knotted electromagnetic fields

TL;DR

This paper analytically decomposes the angular momentum of non-paraxial, knotted electromagnetic fields into spin and orbital components, revealing how helicity influences local angular momentum density and its evolution.

Contribution

It provides a detailed non-paraxial analysis of spin-orbital angular momentum decomposition in knotted electromagnetic fields, linking helicity and angular momentum behavior.

Findings

Angular momentum split into spin and orbital components for non-null knotted fields.

Local angular momentum density behaves differently despite identical total angular momentum.

Helicity affects the temporal evolution of angular momentum density.

Abstract

We calculate analytically the spin-orbital decomposition of the angular momentum using completely non-paraxial fields that have certain degree of linkage of electric and magnetic lines. The split of the angular momentum into spin-orbital components is worked out for non-null knotted electromagnetic fields. The relation between magnetic and electric helicities and spin-orbital decomposition of the angular momentum is considered. We demonstrate that even if the total angular momentum and the values of the spin and orbital momentum are the same, the behaviour of the local angular momentum density is rather different. By taking cases with constant and non-constant electric and magnetic helicities, we show that the total angular momentum density present different characteristics during time evolution.