Classical circular polarization refers to the polarization of electromagnetic waves, where the electric field oscillates in a circular motion. Photon spin eigenstates, on the other hand, refer to the intrinsic angular momentum of a photon, which can either be right-handed or left-handed. In classical polarization, the direction of the electric field determines the polarization, while in photon spin eigenstates, the direction of the photon's spin determines its polarization.
Classical circular polarization can be described as a superposition of two photon spin eigenstates, with equal magnitudes and opposite directions. This means that classical circularly polarized light is made up of photons with both right-handed and left-handed spins.
No, photons with different spin eigenstates cannot interact with each other because they have different quantum numbers and cannot be in the same state at the same time. This is known as the Pauli exclusion principle.
In classical circular polarization, the polarization is measured by the orientation of a polarizer relative to the direction of the electric field. In photon spin eigenstates, the polarization is measured by the direction of the photon's spin, which can be determined through experiments such as the Stern-Gerlach experiment.
Yes, it is possible to convert classical circularly polarized light into a single photon spin eigenstate through a process called polarization filtering. This involves using polarizers and waveplates to selectively filter out photons with a certain spin eigenstate, resulting in a beam of light with only one type of polarization.