Electron & Neutron Absorbing Photons: Charge Explained

  • Thread starter Thread starter GarryS
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Electron Neutron
GarryS
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Is it because of charge of an electron that it absobs a photon or even a neutron can absorb a photon?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I guess you could say that. I think it is because all three of those particles interact via the electromagnetic force.
 
Drakkith said:
I guess you could say that. I think it is because all three of those particles interact via the electromagnetic force.

How do they actually interact? What's the mechanism involved?
 
GarryS said:
How do they actually interact? What's the mechanism involved?

The interaction is described using math, but if your looking for some underlying mechanism, something that "really" happens, then you'll be dissapointed, as science can only describe what happens as we observe and measure it. There are a few interpretations however, one of them being the view that a "virtual" particle is exchanged, however mathematically there is little or no difference between the interpretations to my knowledge.

See here for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_interaction
 
The neutron couples with photons via its magnetic moment.
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!
Back
Top