Field theory of monochromatic optical beams: II. Classical and quantum paraxial fields

This work is the second part of an investigation aiming at the study of optical wave equations from a field-theoretic point of view. Here, we study classical and quantum aspects of scalar fields satisfying the paraxial wave equation. First, we determine conservation laws for energy, linear and angular momentum of paraxial fields in a classical context. Then, we proceed with the quantization of the field. Finally, we compare our result with the traditional ones. (paper)