Timeline for Can a massless particle have both spin and charge?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Oct 22, 2020 at 5:02 | comment | added | Anonjohn | You can downvote me all you want, but I am not going to change the wording. The answer was written to highlight the point that massless particles not carrying a charge in nature is an accident and that they could carry a charge. This was definitely not written with the intention of being overly technical or to exclusively cater to an audience with a background in field theory. It was intended to highlight some points that come out of that understanding, and may be of relevance to the question. I am sorry, but I disagree. | |
| Oct 22, 2020 at 4:48 | comment | added | joseph h | People who have experience in QFT understood but many that are learning do not. I agree with @mary_stein and think you should probably clarify this point in your answer. | |
| Oct 22, 2020 at 4:36 | comment | added | Anonjohn | Please read what I have said. Electric charge is the eigenvalue of the one particle state under an operator, and some of them have- zero eigenvalue. The ones with zero Eigen value dont couple to the photon and are "uncharged". Those that have a non zero eigenvalue do. At no point did I say all particles have non zero charge. What I am saying is almost a tautology, but meant to clarify that all particles could potentially be charged. | |
| Oct 22, 2020 at 4:19 | comment | added | user276724 | every particle has an electric charge is not true. You mean every massive particel of the standard model? Even that is wrong since the higgs boson is neutral (and spin zero) | |
| Oct 21, 2020 at 23:35 | comment | added | Anonjohn | Yes, it would move at the speed of light. I am not sure the second question is concrete enough to write down a definitive answer. I will say that universality of gravitational interaction constrain this particle to have a helicity less than $\frac{3}{2}$. | |
| Oct 21, 2020 at 23:32 | comment | added | Penguino | With reference to the lack of rest frame for a massless particle, does that mean a charged massless particle would still move at c? If so, does GR have anything to say about the possibility (or behaviour) of such a particle? | |
| Oct 21, 2020 at 22:58 | history | edited | Anonjohn | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 21, 2020 at 22:45 | history | edited | Anonjohn | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 21, 2020 at 22:38 | history | answered | Anonjohn | CC BY-SA 4.0 |