Abstract
In the wide realm of applications of quantum electrodynamics, a non-covariant formulation of theory is particularly well suited to describing the interactions of light with molecular matter. The robust framework upon which this formulation is built, fully accounting for the intrinsically quantum nature of both light and the molecular states, enables powerful symmetry principles to be applied. With their origins in the fundamental transformation properties of the electromagnetic field, the application of these principles can readily resolve issues concerning the validity of mechanisms, as well as facilitate the identification of conditions for widely ranging forms of linear and nonlinear optics. Considerations of temporal, structural, and tensorial symmetry offer significant additional advantages in correctly registering chiral forms of interaction. More generally, the implementation of symmetry principles can considerably simplify analysis by reducing the number of independent quantities necessary to relate to experimental results to a minimum. In this account, a variety of such principles are drawn out with reference to applications, including recent advances. Connections are established with parity, duality, angular momentum, continuity equations, conservation laws, chirality, and spectroscopic selection rules. Particular attention is paid to the optical interactions of molecules as they are commonly studied, in fluids and randomly organised media.
Highlights
It is a truism that principles of symmetry lie at the heart of modern physics
At this level, where the quantum nature of the world is very evident, the one theory that correctly accounts for the optical properties of both molecules and light, in their mutual interactions, is molecular quantum electrodynamics (QED) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
T(r) tensors are odd with respect to both parity operations, their product will remain the same if both radiation and matter are inverted in space, physically representing opposite parity enantiomers, and opposite helicity radiation
Summary
It is a truism that principles of symmetry lie at the heart of modern physics. it is perhaps to be expected, when scientific reductionism demands fundamental theory to be valid at every level from the smallest subatomic particle upwards. Just as the atoms in a molecule are primarily held together by electrical forces, molecules engage with light by primarily electrical—and to some extent, magnetic—forms of coupling At this level, where the quantum nature of the world is very evident, the one theory that correctly accounts for the optical properties of both molecules and light, in their mutual interactions, is molecular quantum electrodynamics (QED) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. It draws on principles that operate at the deepest fundamental level; QED is widely known as the most successful theory in physics, unsurpassed in the precision of its agreement with experiment It is not quantitative accuracy for which the theory has value; it has a robust character of immense power for determining absolutely the validity, viability, and necessary conditions for optical interactions of a wide-ranging nature, based on principles of structural and mathematical symmetry.
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