No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 June 2008
A microscopic eikonal theory based on photon wave mechanics is established. The diamagnetic (solid state) field-plasma interaction is shown to play a central role in the theory, and this interaction enables one to introduce a massive transverse photon concept. This quasi-particle enters the eikonal theory in manner similar to the one in which the classical point particle enters Newtonian Mechanics in the Hamilton-Jacobi formulation. When the spatial fluctuations in the stationary-state plasma density are of importance the microscopic eikonal theory becomes a spatially nonlocal theory, and the nonlocality, originating in the coupling of longitudinal and scalar photons to the massive transverse photon, extends over near-field distances.