What equation describes the wavefunction of a single photon?

There is no quantum mechanics of a photon, only a quantum field theory of electromagnetic radiation. The reason is that photons are never non-relativistic and they can be freely emitted and absorbed, hence no photon number conservation.

Still, there exists a direction of research where people try to reinterpret certain quantities of electromagnetic field in terms of the photon wave function, see for example this paper.


There is a slight confusion in this question. In quantum field theory, the Dirac equation and the Schrödinger equation have very different roles. The Dirac equation is an equation for the field, which is not a particle. The time evolution of a particle, ie, a quantum state, is always given by the Schrödinger equation. The hamiltonian for this time evolution is written in terms of fields which obey a certain equation themselves. So, the proper answer is: Schrödinger equation with a hamiltonian given in terms of a massless vector field whose equation is nothing else but Maxwell's equation.


The maxwell equations, just like in classical electrodynamics. You'll need to use quantum field theory to work with them though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativistic_wave_equations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_electrodynamics