B Gravitons vs photons: Does the size of the atom make any difference?

[Josiah]

TL;DR

Does the size of the atom make any difference?

Hi, does the size of the atom make any difference to whether a photon gets absorbed or not? Hence would that be the same for a graviton.

 

[Nugatory]

An atom isn’t a little round ball so we want to be cautious about using words like “size” - there’s a notion of atomic size but it’s not quite like what we mean when we talk about the size of a billiard ball.

Whether a photon is absorbed or scattered by an atom depends on how it interacts with the individual charged particles that make up the atom, and these are close to (in the case of the electron exactly, as far as we know) point particles. So the answer to your question is somewhere between “that’s not a good way of thinking about it” and “no”.

 

[Josiah]

Does the atomic mass of an atom change the amount of photons it absorbs? ie if the photons kick electrons into a higher energy level, doesn't the number of electrons in the atom mean more photons get aborbed

 

[Josiah]

An atom isn’t a little round ball so we want to be cautious about using words like “size” - there’s a notion of atomic size but it’s not quite like what we mean when we talk about the size of a billiard ball.

Whether a photon is absorbed or scattered by an atom depends on how it interacts with the individual charged particles that make up the atom, and these are close to (in the case of the electron exactly, as far as we know) point particles. So the answer to your question is somewhere between “that’s not a good way of thinking about it” and “no”.

how about electrons? Does the number of electrons change the way a photon gets absorbed?