When emitted from an atom, does a photon propagate through space-time as a sphere, in all directions, as a wave or as a directed point particle? I think it's a wave and not a directional point particle and certainly not at the same time. I think that as the Photons travel through space-time as a wave, in a spherical manner and collapses via some sort of interaction (reflection, refraction, absorption) then and only then can a directional point be determined. therefore I think the particle nature of light is simply a by-product of wave interactions, they only exist as a way to show interactions of wave functions or put in another way, light is simply the interactions of wave functions.
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Can the Particle nature of light be explained by wave interactions?
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When emitted from an atom, does a photon propagate through space-time as a sphere, in all directions, as a wave or as a directed point particle? s.
There is confusion here in the concepts "photon", and "light".
The photon is a quantum mechanical entity, i.e. its existence in space obeys quantum mechanical rules and a wave equation defines its wavefunction, a solution of a quantized form of Maxwell's equations. The Psi*Psi of the solutions of this equation for given boundarry conditions give the probability density of finding a "photon" hit at an (x,y,z,t).It is the probability density for the photon that has sinusoidal/wave properties.
therefore I think the particle nature of light is simply a by-product of wave interactions, they only exist as a way to show interactions of wave functions or put in another way, light is simply the interactions of wave functions.
Light is an emergent quantity from an enormous confluence of photons with energy h*nu. To see how this happens one needs quantum field theory. It is not surprising that the classical electromagnetic wave will have as a frequency in its amplitude the nu of the photon energy, because both are solutions of maxwell's equations.
The photons in a light beam do not interact, (very small probability) they are superimposed as wavefunctions and when complex squared the electric and magnetic fields which define the wave properties of light appear. It is the quantum nature that is the underlying framework. The same is true for classical waves emerging from the underlying quantum mechanical level of atoms and molecules
anna v
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does a photon propagate through space-time
A massless photon is not propagating through spacetime, because its lightlike spacetime interval is zero. That means that there is nothing between the point of emission and the point of absorption. The propagation from one point in spacetime to the same point is meaningless, there is nothing which is propagating.
However, it is the wave of a photon which is being observed as propagating through spacetime.
therefore I think the particle nature of light is simply a by-product of wave interactions,
A massless photon is the transmission of a momentum from one point in spacetime to an adjacent point (in spacetime). That means, particle characteristics are transmitted directly from one atom to an adjacent atom within spacetime. The wave is a by-product of this transmission because the zero spacetime interval can correspond to billions of light years in space. And while the transmission is directly from atom to atom in spacetime, no observer can observe the lightlike interval, but instead all observers observe - as a sort of "by-product" - a wave as an intermediate between both atoms. A wave of a massless photon is the observable witness of the invisible zero interval.
Moonraker
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