Photon in Infinity
Markendeya Yeddanapudi
1. Photons and Their Properties:
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A photon is a quantum of light, a particle with no rest mass that travels at the speed of light (c). It always moves at this constant speed in a vacuum, and this speed is the ultimate speed limit in the universe.
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Photons are not bound by traditional notions of position in space-time like larger objects. Their exact location at any given moment is described by a probability wave, which means we can't pinpoint their position with absolute certainty (thanks to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle).
2. Can a Photon be Located "in Infinity"?
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In the traditional sense, infinity is not a specific point in space-time but more of an abstract concept that represents an unbounded or limitless expanse.
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A photon, by its nature, can travel vast distances across space. But it’s not "located" in infinity. Instead, it moves through space-time, potentially going on forever in a vacuum (assuming no interactions like absorption or scattering). However, its position would still be described probabilistically in any given moment, not as a fixed location in infinity.
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If you're asking whether a photon can exist at a location that we consider "infinity," it's not that the photon resides there, but rather that its wave-like nature means it can be anywhere in the unbounded space, always moving, and never quite "settling" in any specific place.
3. Do Separate Photons Exist?
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Yes, individual photons can exist as separate, discrete packets of energy. They can be emitted independently, travel independently, and interact independently (or not) with matter.
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However, photons are also affected by the quantum nature of light, meaning they can be entangled or interact with other particles. But this does not mean they lose their identity as separate photons. Entanglement, for example, doesn’t mean that two photons become one; it just means that their properties become correlated in such a way that measuring one immediately gives information about the other.
4. Infinity and Light:
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The idea of "infinity" in relation to light could also bring up questions about the expansion of the universe. Photons traveling through space are affected by the expanding universe, meaning their wavelengths stretch as they travel over vast cosmological distances, especially for photons originating from distant galaxies.
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Still, even in this cosmological context, photons are not "located" in infinity; they are just traveling through an ever-expanding universe, potentially continuing infinitely if not absorbed by matter.
In Summary:
A photon doesn't "exist" in infinity as a fixed point, but rather travels through the unbounded universe. It can move indefinitely, but it is always described probabilistically. Photons can certainly exist as individual, separate entities in space, and their behavior can be studied as discrete particles, even if their interactions are subject to the strange rules of quantum mechanics.
Does this clarify the idea, or did you have a specific scenario in mind for photons and infinity?
Rajaram Krishnamurthy
Yes, an independent photon can exist in a region of space devoid of objects with volume. Photons are massless particles that carry energy and momentum, and they are not defined by having a physical volume themselves. They travel at the speed of light and, in the context of special relativity, their rest mass is zero. Photons are not like ordinary objects that occupy space. They are quanta of the electromagnetic field, described by wave-like properties like wavelength and frequency. A photon's existence doesn't depend on interacting with other objects. It can propagate through empty space, carrying energy and information.
Infinity and photons:
While the concept of "infinity" can be complex, in this context, it simply means a region without any physical objects with volume. Photons, being massless and without volume, can exist in such a space. In principle, photons can travel infinitely through space, and their existence is not inherently tied to the presence of matter. Therefore, an independent photon can exist in a space without objects, as it doesn't require a physical volume to exist or propagate. If there was a way (there isn't; special relativity prohibits it) to observe a photon at rest, you would find it massless. All the relativistic mass of the photon comes from it's energy. In particle physics when we say mass, we usually refer to the rest mass. This is why we usually say that photons are massless.
One of the most enduring ideas in all the Universe is that everything that exists now will someday see its existence come to an end. The stars, galaxies, and even the black holes that occupy the space in our Universe will all some day burn out, fade away, and otherwise decay, leaving what we think of as a “heat death” state: where no more energy can possibly be extracted, in any way, from a uniform, maximum entropy, equilibrium state. But, perhaps, there are exceptions to this general rule, and that some things will truly live on forever. One such candidate for a truly stable entity is the photon: the quantum of light. All of the electromagnetic radiation that exists in the Universe is made up of photons, and photons, as far as we can tell, have an infinite lifetime. Does that mean that light will truly live forever? It’s not necessarily an easy question to answer. We can fathom circumstances where they do persist eternally, but we can also imagine cases where they decay away, where they convert into other particles, or even when they transition into something novel or unexpected entirely. It’s a big and compelling question, and one that brings us right up to the edge of everything we know about the Universe. Here’s the best answer that science has today. Photons don't age, but they do die. That is a paradox. If photons don't experience time (because they are moving at the speed of light) how can they vanish? Yet if a photon is absorbed on a surface, that's exactly what happens. The paradox arises because in saying a photon doesn't experience time, we are not following the rules of Einstein's relativity. He discovered that to make sense, the allowed inertial frames in the theory must always move at less than the speed of light. Lightspeed inertial frames are explicitly not allowed. So there is no inertial frame that serves as the proper frame for light. Physicists sometimes cheat, particularly to say something that will confound and amaze the non-physicist, so we sometimes say "time comes to a halt for a photon." The only sense that really makes is in the limit; if a photon has very tiny rest mass, so far unobserved but real, then its time almost comes to a halt. The problem with the limit is that it doesn't exist. (When you say something is the limit of a sequence, the mathematicians -- who came up with the concept of limit -- showed that the first step is always to show the limit exists. That's the problem with the now famous claim that 1+2+3+... = -1/12. If you don't bother checking to see if the limit exists, you can have all sorts of fun paradoxes.) THUS e=Mc2 cannot be applied so easily as far as photons are concerned since THERE ARE MORE THINGS ON HEAVEN AND EARTH ,Horatio.
K Rajaram IRS 4725
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