Do all forms of energy behave like light?

[rmclaug]

The idea of this question came from Stephen Hawking on a show on the Discovery channel called "Curiosity: Did God Create the Universe". Stephen Hawking said that energy and space were the only ingredients necessary to create the universe:

1. Do all forms of energy behave like light?
   
2. Can all forms of matter be produced from energy? (ie. e=mc^2)
   
3. Can energy form all the things in the universe?

Thanks, Ron

 

[Matterwave]

1. No, light is only one type of energy (radiative energy). There's also kinetic energy, potential energy, etc. I will note though that the question is very vague. What do you mean by "behave like light"?

2. Essentially yes, the Rules of Quantum Mechanics allows particle pair production from photons, for example. And you can get all sorts of results when you collide two particle beams together. That's what they do at those particle accelerator experiments.

3. This question is too vague. I don't know what you mean by it.

 

[rmclaug]

Thank you for the reply. Let me rephrase it:

Again, the idea for this question from Stephen Hawking on the Discovery channel show "Curiosity: Did God Create the Universe":

1. Do all forms of electromagnetic energy behave like light?
   
2. Can all forms of matter be produced from electromagnetic energy? (ie. e=mc^2)
   
3. Can energy form all the things in the universe? Can electromagnetic energy form all the things in the universe except space?

Thanks, Ron

 

[rmclaug]

Also, when I say behave like light I mean does it have the speed of light(in a vacuum)? Furthermore does it behave like light as both a wave and particle

 

[UltrafastPED]

All forms of electromagnetic energy travel at the same speed in vacuo: c.

However they interact with materials in different ways: radio, microwave, infrared, UV, x-ray, etc.

E=mc^2 is a universal law. The trick is to organize the situation required. It is fairly easy to make electrons and positrons, but becomes increasingly difficult to form larger particles. And yet, they have all been created, but not directly from light-on-light experiments. Their is always another material present.

And yes, all EM waves have both particle and wave behavior, though the particle behavior is more obvious for more energetic waves (x-rays, gamma), and much less so for the longer wave lengths (radio).

 

[Matterwave]

1) There's still potential energy of the EM fields themselves, e.g. between capacitor plates. The energy is just stored there, there's no real "speed" associated with it. So I guess I would have to say "no". However, if you are asking if all electromagnetic WAVES travel at the speed of light, then yes, in vacuum they do.

2+3) It is beyond my expertise to answer thoroughly this question. I'm not sure if all the elementary particles can be created from photon+photon interactions.

 

[Matterwave]

What about when a non-charged particle (e.g. neutrino) is moving? It certainly has kinetic energy. How do you propose to define that kinetic energy as an electromagnetic radiation?

 

[UltrafastPED]

I recon there is only 1 type of energy EMR. All other types of energy are simply different manifestation of EMR

This is false. Consider http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/forces/funfor.html

 

[BruceW]

I think Ultrafast answered pretty well. But I'll add what I would say anyway.

Thank you for the reply. Let me rephrase it:

Do all forms of electromagnetic energy behave like light?

Yes, definitely yes. In fact, certain animals can see u.v. electromagnetic radiation. So the category of "light" as a subset of EM radiation is a purely artificial category. By that, I mean we humans only see light, because of the specific receptors in our eyes. But this is the only way that "light" is special, as compared to EM radiation of other wavelengths. The only 'fundamental' difference is the wavelength of the EM radiation.

Can all forms of matter be produced from electromagnetic energy? (ie. e=mc^2)

yeah. In the standard model of particle physics, there is matter and antimatter. And we have matter - antimatter = conserved. Therefore, as long as we make both antimatter and matter, we could use EM energy to make any kind of matter. Also, as Ultrafast says, it is more unlikely that a photon-photon collision will create particles with high mass, but it is still possible, as long as your photons have enough energy.

edit: the Feynman diagram might need to have several vertices, but this is still one 'collision' really.

 

[rmclaug]

Thank you for all the replies,

One of the ideas expressed by Stephen Hawking is that the universe could be entirely made from just two ingredients:energy and space.¹ I am just trying to understand the truthfulness to this, perhaps some finer points of this, and its implication to the foundations of the universe.

Reference:
1. Hawking, Stephen. "Did God Create the Universe." Curiosity. Discovery. 7 Aug. 2011. Television.

 

[rmclaug]

Thanks again for all the replies.

So, could one be more specific and say that the only two ingredients necessary to make a universe are electromagnetic energy and space and still be correct? This being more specific by adding electromagnetic before energy to Hawking's assertion that the only two ingredients needed to make a universe are energy and space.

 

[rmclaug]

I think Ultrafast answered pretty well. But I'll add what I would say anyway.

Yes, definitely yes. In fact, certain animals can see u.v. electromagnetic radiation. So the category of "light" as a subset of EM radiation is a purely artificial category. By that, I mean we humans only see light, because of the specific receptors in our eyes. But this is the only way that "light" is special, as compared to EM radiation of other wavelengths. The only 'fundamental' difference is the wavelength of the EM radiation.


yeah. In the standard model of particle physics, there is matter and antimatter. And we have matter - antimatter = conserved. Therefore, as long as we make both antimatter and matter, we could use EM energy to make any kind of matter. Also, as Ultrafast says, it is more unlikely that a photon-photon collision will create particles with high mass, but it is still possible, as long as your photons have enough energy.

edit: the Feynman diagram might need to have several vertices, but this is still one 'collision' really.

Thank you and thank everyone else for their input too. A lot of interesting stuff here from everyone.

I am sorry I must have read over the latter part of this answer yesterday where you talked about creating all kinds of matter. I believe that you are saying that EM energy could create any kind of matter. So from this I am taking it that EM energy could used to create all the matter in the universe and with the addition of space create the universe itself and there would be nothing amiss?

 

[BruceW]

Thank you and thank everyone else for their input too. A lot of interesting stuff here from everyone.

I am sorry I must have read over the latter part of this answer yesterday where you talked about creating all kinds of matter. I believe that you are saying that EM energy could create any kind of matter. So from this I am taking it that EM energy could used to create all the matter in the universe and with the addition of space create the universe itself and there would be nothing amiss?

(I think) you're talking about the universe as being the "ultimate free lunch" right? Well, I don't know a lot of cosmology. But as far as I understand it, the standard theory is that the early universe contained quantum fluctuations, and inflation stretched out these fluctuations. So (I think) we don't even need EM energy. We just need some quantum fluctuations, and space.