20 Sept 2024

PHOTONS

Yes, photons have spin: 
 
Spin angular momentum (SAM)
Photons have SAM, which comes from the rotation of their electric field. SAM can only point forward or backward relative to the direction of the beam. 
 
Spin number
Photons can have a spin of either -1 or +1. 
 
Spin and polarization
The polarization of light is often considered its "intrinsic" spin degree of freedom. 
 
Spin and bosons
Photons are bosons because they have an integer spin. By the spin-statistics theorem, all bosons follow Bose–Einstein statistics. 
 
Spin and 3D movies
The spin property of photons is used to create 3D movies. In a 3D movie theater, one image is projected with positive-spin photons and the other with negative-spin photons. The 3D glasses filter out either the positive-spin or negative-spin photons.
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