Timeline for What exactly is meant by the wavelength of a photon?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
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| Feb 1, 2023 at 4:35 | comment | added | anna v | The photon has energy, but is a point particle. The multiplicity of photons build up the electromagnetic light used to define space precision in experiments, and the classical light has higher frequency the higher the E=h*nu of the individual photons. | |
| Jan 31, 2023 at 22:41 | comment | added | Sergio Prats | It is said that in order to locate a particle with high precision in space you need high-frequency photons, how can that be compatible with not having wavelength? If the photon has a frequency, it must also have wavelength related both by c. | |
| Nov 16, 2022 at 17:46 | comment | added | Relativisticcucumber | hi，in your statement "How the classical wave emerges can be seen here although it needs a quantum field theory background to understand it", the link is not viewable to me. could you add another resource that shows what you were trying to illustrate with that if you have time? | |
| Feb 8, 2021 at 18:44 | history | edited | anna v | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added after comment in duplicate
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| Feb 8, 2021 at 7:17 | comment | added | anna v | @benrg you are not correct. The photon is related to the wavelength in the probability distribution, not in extent in space and time. The standard model field theory has the photons massless and point like and describes well all the data with this assumption. It is just the probability distribution that has the wave behavior. We use the model to describe the data , and the double slit experiment single photon at a time shows a footprint of a particle , not a wave, consistent with the standard model field theory. | |
| Feb 8, 2021 at 6:46 | comment | added | benrg | @annav There's nothing outside mainstream physics about saying that a single photon has a wavelength. Technically the photon number isn't even well defined except in a normal mode that has a precisely defined wavelength. The waves in QFT aren't just probability waves. There's a field theory already at the Lagrangian level. Waves get a particle nature from quantization, not the other way around. | |
| Feb 8, 2021 at 5:59 | comment | added | anna v | @benrg I am not suggesting anything, I am pointing out the present mainstream physics definition of a photon, which is a point elementary particle and any wavelength is related to the probability distributions defined by the quantum mechanical problem. Your statement is outside mainstream physics, which is what is being discussed . The only possible measurement of individual photons are of energy spin orientation. and (x,y,z) interaction in space. | |
| Feb 8, 2021 at 4:12 | comment | added | benrg | -1 A single photon has a wavelength that is measurable in principle. You don't have to measure in the position basis. It's not true that photons are spatially localized "pieces" of the classical EM wave as you seem to be suggesting. | |
| S Dec 4, 2020 at 16:43 | history | suggested | Andrew | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Improved Formatting.
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| Dec 4, 2020 at 15:30 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Dec 4, 2020 at 16:43 | |||||
| Nov 25, 2020 at 11:47 | history | edited | anna v | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
fixed link
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| May 16, 2018 at 19:07 | comment | added | user183966 | Ok, so if I understand your intention this answer is an explanation of traditional wave particle duality and not something beyond, thank you for clarifying. | |
| May 16, 2018 at 12:11 | comment | added | anna v | @user183966 The coherence of photons comes in their wavefunction, i.e. it is probabilities that have phases seemy answer here physics.stackexchange.com/questions/403412/… . the wave is a qm probability wave, not a classical wave of energy intensity. | |
| May 16, 2018 at 10:17 | comment | added | user183966 | Anna, you say that the photon does not have a wavelength. However, if we say that coherent states have a wavelength, and if we consider coherent states a simple vector sum of particle number states, then surely the single particle states must have a wavelength? Because they must be the same type of object to admit a simple sum. (I am assuming single particle states must be plane wave if they have any spatial character) Just learning QFT so if you can point my error that would be very helpful to me. | |
| Jul 9, 2016 at 22:42 | comment | added | hopper19 | Thank you and to the others who answered and commented. I like this answer simply because at the end it directly answers my main question in an easy-to-understand way (I've only just finished first year of engineering in college). I hadn't realised that people also differentiate between photons and EM waves, one being part of QM and the other being part of Classical Physics. This clears it up a lot more so thank you. | |
| Jul 9, 2016 at 22:38 | vote | accept | hopper19 | ||
| Jul 9, 2016 at 15:22 | history | answered | anna v | CC BY-SA 3.0 |