Erratum: Gaussian and Airy wave packets of massive particles with orbital angular momentum [Phys. Rev. A91, 013847 (2015)

Abstract

While wave-packet solutions for relativistic wave equations are oftentimes thought to be approximate (paraxial), we demonstrate, by employing a null-plane- (light-cone-) variable formalism, that there is a family of such solutions that are exact. A scalar Gaussian wave packet in the transverse plane is generalized so that it acquires a well-defined $z$ component of the orbital angular momentum (OAM), while it may not acquire a typical ``doughnut'' spatial profile. Such quantum states and beams, in contrast to the Bessel states, may have an azimuthal-angle-dependent probability density and finite uncertainty of the OAM, which is determined by the packet's width. We construct a well-normalized Airy wave packet, which can be interpreted as a one-particle state for a relativistic massive boson, show that its center moves along the same quasiclassical straight path, and, which is more important, spreads with time and distance exactly as a Gaussian wave packet does, in accordance with the uncertainty principle. It is explained that this fact does not contradict the well-known ``nonspreading'' feature of the Airy beams. While the effective OAM for such states is zero, its uncertainty (or the beam's OAM bandwidth) is found to be finite, and it depends on the packet's parameters. A link between exact solutions for the Klein-Gordon equation in the null-plane-variable formalism and the approximate ones in the usual approach is indicated; generalizations of these states for a boson in the external field of a plane electromagnetic wave are also presented.