Optical eigenmode collapse

Abstract

The optical eigenmode representation of light fields defines a natural orthogonal basis of solutions of Maxwell's equations taking into account the geometry and interactions involved in a problem. Formally, the optical eigenmodes are similar to the wave functions in quantum mechanics. Here, I put forward that, in a linear interaction at the single photon level, the electromagnetic field collapses into an optical eigenmode of the interaction in question. This is to satisfy the principle that no linear optical system can distinguish between pure states and their superposition for single photons. To exemplify this statement, we will consider the case of angular momentum and linear momentum transfer in optical scattering.