Do photons, phonons and electrons have mass?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the mass properties of photons, phonons, and electrons. It establishes that electrons possess rest mass, denoted as ##m_e##, while photons have zero rest mass and cannot be at rest relative to any observer. Phonons, being quantized lattice vibrations, do not have a well-defined rest mass. The conversation also touches on the propagation of light through different media and the misconceptions surrounding the behavior of photons in such contexts.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of quantum mechanics and particle physics
  • Familiarity with the concept of rest mass and relativistic physics
  • Knowledge of electromagnetic theory and wave-particle duality
  • Basic grasp of quantum field theory (QFT)
NEXT STEPS
  • Research "Quantum Field Theory and Light Propagation" for deeper insights into photon behavior in media
  • Study "Rest Mass vs. Relativistic Mass" to clarify concepts of mass in physics
  • Explore "Phonons and Their Role in Solid State Physics" to understand lattice vibrations
  • Investigate "Pair Production and Photon Interactions" to learn about photon behavior in particle physics
USEFUL FOR

Students and professionals in physics, particularly those focused on quantum mechanics, particle physics, and electromagnetic theory, will benefit from this discussion.

  • #61
That's a very important point. As the analysis of the representation theory of the proper orthochronous Poincare group in the context of relativistic QFT reveals, the massless case is special, and the limit "##m \rightarrow 0##" is anything but trivial. That's also the mathematical reason for the fact that one must not think about photons as pointlike objects traveling with the speed of light wrt. any (inertial) reference frame.

The correct semiclassical point of view of the "photon", as usually treated in GR textbooks, is that this is in fact the eikonal approximation of Maxwellian electrodynamics. It describes the behaviour of wave vectors in the sense of geometric optics. The point-particle-photon picture can sometimes be a shortcut in deriving interesting things about em.-wave propagation (e.g., in the GR context the gravitational bending of light) but it must not be mistaken as a point-particle interpretation of photons. This was an erroneous point of view in the early days of the "old quantum theory", which is out of date for at least 97 years!
 
  • Informative
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