Paper detail

Mean propagation velocity of multiphoton wave-packet states with nonzero Lorentz-invariant mass

The concept of Lorenz invariant mass and mean propagation velocity have been investigated in detail for various multiphoton wave-packet states of light. Based on photodetection theory and straightforward kinematics, we presented a physically reasonable and at the same time rigorous proof that mean propagation velocity is consistent with the Lorentz-invariant mass concept for an arbitrary multiphoton wave-packet state. We argued that mean propagation velocity is less than the speed of light constant in vacuum and is governed by geometric properties of state's amplitude in wave-vector space for arbitrary wave-packet states. To classify states with different fixed values of Lorentz-invariant mass, we introduced a specific set of modes that allow us to describe the wave-packet state in its rest frame.