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So in Feynman's QED book strange theory of light and matter, he mentioned as a photon travels, it spreads a little, thus the "arrow" shrinks inversely with distance, and that is the inverse square law. I'm having trouble $\bf{intuitively}$ understanding this. I understand the classical inverse square law with a point source emitting light in all directions. But for a single photon, going from source S to detector D, what does it mean that this photon will spread a little as it travels to D?

Qmechanic
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Would you accept it as being intuitive if I tell you that the little arrows that Feynman was talking about, are actually the electric field vector in circular polarisation? i.e. they diminish as distance increases, in the same reason that classically electric fields should.

Otherwise, it is often difficult to expect there to be an intuitive argument for complicated things like these.

does it mean that this photon will spread a little as it travels to D?

No, the photon is still one entity; if you accept de Broglie-Bohm Pilot Wave Interpretation, then we can use the language of saying that it is the guiding wave that is spreading. (In this case, it is the electric field wave.)

naturallyInconsistent
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