Photon vortex generation in quantum level by high-order harmonic synchrotron radiations from spiral moving electrons in magnetic fields

TL;DR

This paper investigates the generation of photon vortices in synchrotron radiation from electrons in strong magnetic fields, revealing their quantum states and potential astrophysical significance.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum wave-function description of photon vortices in synchrotron radiation from spiral electrons, linking them to astrophysical phenomena.

Findings

Photon vortices are eigen-states of total angular momentum in synchrotron radiation.

Decay widths and energy spectra are calculated for magnetic fields of 10^12 - 10^13 G.

Photon vortices are likely generated in magnetized neutron stars and related objects.

Abstract

We explore photon vortex generation in synchrotron radiations from a spiral moving electron under a uniform magnetic field along z-axis using Landau quantization. The obtained wave-function of the photon vortecies is the eigen-state of the z-component of the total angular momentum (zTAM). In m-th harmonic radiations, individual photons are the eigen-state of zTAM of m. This is consistent with previous studies. Using the presently obtained wave-functions we calculate the decay widths and the energy spectra under extremely strong magnetic fields of 10^12 - 10^13 G, which are observed in astrophysical objects such as magnetized neutron stars and jets and accretion disks around black holes. The result suggests that photon vortices are predominantly generated in such objects. Although they have no coherency it is expected that photon vortices from the universe are measured using a detector based upon a quantum effect in future. This effect also affects to stellar nucleosynthesis in strong magnetic fields.