title: Angular momentum of sound pulses.
abstract: Three-dimensionally localized acoustic pulses in an isotropic fluid medium necessarily have transverse components of momentum density. Those with an azimuthal component of momentum density can carry angular momentum. The component of total pulse angular momentum along the direction of the total momentum is an invariant (constant in time and independent of choice of origin). The pulse energy, momentum and angular momentum are evaluated analytically for a family of localized solutions of the wave equation. In the limit where the pulses have many oscillations within their spatial extent ([Formula: see text], where k is the wavenumber and a determines the size of a pulse), the energy, momentum and angular momentum are consistent with a multiphonon representation of the pulse, each phonon having energy [Formula: see text], momentum [Formula: see text] and angular momentum [Formula: see text] (with integer m).
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lekner