- #1
Prometeus
- 43
- 3
Despite some effort I still don't understand how Coulombs law can be used for experimental search for mass of photon.
From wikipedia:
If a photon did have non-zero mass, there would be other effects as well. Coulomb's law would be modified and the electromagnetic field would have an extra physical degree of freedom. These effects yield more sensitive experimental probes of the photon mass than the frequency dependence of the speed of light. If Coulomb's law is not exactly valid, then that would allow the presence of an electric field to exist within a hollow conductor when it is subjected to an external electric field. This thus allows one to test Coulomb's law to very high precision.[25] A null result of such an experiment has set a limit of m ≲ 10−14 eV/c2.[26]
Why would Coulombs law be needed modified if photon had non-zero invariant mass?
From wikipedia:
If a photon did have non-zero mass, there would be other effects as well. Coulomb's law would be modified and the electromagnetic field would have an extra physical degree of freedom. These effects yield more sensitive experimental probes of the photon mass than the frequency dependence of the speed of light. If Coulomb's law is not exactly valid, then that would allow the presence of an electric field to exist within a hollow conductor when it is subjected to an external electric field. This thus allows one to test Coulomb's law to very high precision.[25] A null result of such an experiment has set a limit of m ≲ 10−14 eV/c2.[26]
Why would Coulombs law be needed modified if photon had non-zero invariant mass?