Comment on "Limits of the measurability of the local quantum electromagnetic-field amplitude"

Abstract

It is argued that the findings of a recent reanalysis by Compagno and Persico [Phys. Rev. A 57, 1595 (1998)] of the Bohr--Rosenfeld procedure for the measurement of a single space-time-averaged component of the electromagnetic field are incorrect when the field measurement time is shorter than that required for light to traverse the measurement's test body. To this end, the time-averaged "self-force" on the test body, assumed for simplicity to be of a spherical shape, is evaluated in terms of a one-dimensional quadrature for the general trajectory allowed for the test body by Compagno and Persico, and in closed form for the limiting steplike trajectory used by Bohr and Rosenfeld.