The photon picture of radiation transport

The photon picture of radiation transport is examined. Because the photon has no mass and spin one, a position operator for a photon particle cannot be defined properly. This lack leads to ambiguity if the radiative transfer equation is associated with a quantum transport equation for photons. The issue of photon nonlocalizability is discussed and illustrated through a wavefunction-based approach. It is next shown that the phase space formalism due to Wigner provides a suitable framework for a proper derivation of a photon transport equation from first principles. [DOI: 10.1119/1.3377132]