The photon angular momentum controversy: Resolution of a conflict between laser optics and particle physics

The claim some years ago, contrary to all textbooks, that the angular momentum of a photon (and gluon) can be split in a gauge-invariant way into an orbital and spin term, sparked a major controversy in the Particle Physics community, exacerbated by the realization that many different forms of the angular momentum operators are, in principle, possible. A further cause of upset was the realization that the gluon polarization in a nucleon, a supposedly physically meaningful quantity, corresponds only to the gauge-variant gluon spin derived from Noether's theorem, evaluated in a particular gauge. On the contrary, Laser Physicists have, for decades, been happily measuring physical quantities which correspond to photon orbital and spin angular momentum evaluated in a particular gauge. This paper reconciles the two points of view, and shows that it is the gauge invariant version of the canonical angular momentum which agrees with the results of a host of laser optics experiments.