Geometric factors in the Bohr--Rosenfeld analysis of the measurability of the electromagnetic field

Abstract

The Geometric factors in the field commutators and spring constants of the measurement devices in the famous analysis of the measurability of the electromagnetic field by Bohr and Rosenfeld are calculated using a Fourier--Bessel method for the evaluation of folding integrals, which enables one to obtain the general geometric factors as a Fourier--Bessel series. When the space region over which the factors are defined are spherical, the Fourier--Bessel series terms are given by elementary functions, and using the standard Fourier-integral method of calculating folding integrals, the geometric factors can be evaluated in terms of manageable closed-form expressions.