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When a single photon is reflected is the same one, or is it a new photon (emitted) while the 'original' photon has been absorbed?

I'm not sure how to imagine a refleced photon - it's not a ball bouncing of the wall I guess (photon bouncing to an electron or nucleus) But on the other hand I'm not sure how the emitted photon would obey the law saying that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.

EDIT: based on answers I think i didn't state my question clearly. What I'm trying to ask is: Is there even a possibility that photon is somehow 'bounced' from an atom? Or is it always absorbed and emitted. Or, in other words, does color object (green for example) 'reflect' photons of given wavelength (green) or it actually absorbs that color and then emits it back

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  • $\begingroup$ The only label "photon" has is its wave vector and polarization index. "Reflected photon" has different direction than the "incident photon", thus the label is different, thus the photon is different. $\endgroup$
    – Ján Lalinský
    Commented Mar 30 at 22:52

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at this scale how do you define original? because in the end it's just energy. a wave reflecting back or a photon reflecting back obeying their characteristic nature.

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Speaking of photons means we treat light as quantum particles. In the quantum world there is a principle of indistinguishable particles, i.e. particles with the same quantum numbers cannot be distinguished. From this point of view it is absolutely impossible to know if the reflected photons is the "same" as the impinging photon.

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  • $\begingroup$ Aren't reflected photons very slightly red-shifted due to conservation of momentum and energy, and thus the exiting photon is distiguishable from the incoming? $\endgroup$
    – looksquirrel101
    Commented Mar 30 at 21:20

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