Paper detail

Gauge-invariant momentum and angular momentum operators in quantum electrodynamics and chromodynamics

Differences between vector potentials in different gauges contain no dynamics in both classical and quantum electrodynamics and chromodynamics. Consequently, once gauge invariance is established, results calculated in non-covariant gauges can be expected to agree with results obtained in covariant gauges in all Lorentz frames. We show in particular that canonical quantization in the Coulomb gauge can be used without giving up explicit gauge invariance. Quantization in the Coulomb gauge is particularly simple because it involves only the two transverse photons/gluons present in all gauges. These transverse photons/gluons reside on a 2-dimensional physical plane in momentum space perpendicular to the photon/gluon momentum {\bf k}. Explicit expressions are given for the basic momentum, spin and orbital angular momentum field operators of photons/gluons in the Coulomb gauge. Their properties are discussed in some detail. In particular, these field operators are shown to be more complicated than the corresponding operators in quantum mechanics which they also contain.