Can Photons Orbit in Flat Spacetime?

[duordi]

Two photons are traveling parallel to one another.
Can the photons orbit one another perpendicular to the direction of travel?

That is can the photons follow a stable long spiral path in flat space-time.

The photons have no rest mass but they are not at rest.

If they are traveling ( almost ) parallel paths they would be outside each others light cone and therefore no gravitational information can be transferred from one photon to another.

Gravity however is directed toward where an object is and experiences no time delay, it also escapes a black hole so it seems to have properties which may escape a light cone.

 

[dst]

Two photons are traveling parallel to one another.
Can the photons orbit one another perpendicular to the direction of travel?

That is can the photons follow a stable long spiral path in flat space-time.

The photons have no rest mass but they are not at rest.

If they are traveling ( almost ) parallel paths they would be outside each others light cone and therefore no gravitational information can be transferred from one photon to another.

Gravity however is directed toward where an object is and experiences no time delay, it also escapes a black hole so it seems to have properties which may escape a light cone.

Gravity is limited by the speed of light.

Think of c as a fundamental constraint on EVERYTHING, if it can be used to transmit information then it cannot travel any faster than c (299,792,458m/s).

 

[Entropia]

No, photons cannot orbit in flat spacetime. This is because photons do not have mass and therefore do not experience the effects of gravity. In order for an object to orbit another object, there must be a gravitational force between them. Since photons do not interact gravitationally, they cannot orbit each other.

Additionally, photons always travel at the speed of light and cannot be slowed down or sped up. This means that they cannot follow a curved path, such as a spiral, as this would require a change in their speed or direction.

It is also important to note that the concept of "orbit" typically refers to the motion of an object around a central mass, such as a planet orbiting a star. In the case of two photons traveling parallel to each other, there is no central mass for them to orbit around.

While gravity may have some properties that seem to escape a light cone, this does not change the fact that photons do not experience the effects of gravity and therefore cannot orbit in flat spacetime.