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The attached image is a graph showing the strength of the electric and magnetic fields associated with a classical electromagnetic wave at different places at the same time. It has nothing to do with photons (which, as mfb says, don't have a path).Daniel Petka said:
This is interpretation dependent statement.mfb said:
Daniel Petka said:
Light has a path, but that doesn't mean a photon does. A beam of light is not a stream of photons flowing by the way a river is a stream of water molecules flowing by.Daniel Petka said:
They are indeed... much of the problem comes from the word "particle", which as used in quantum physics doesn't mean at all what you'd expect from the common English-language meaning of the word. Photons are especially complicated because they have no rest mass, so cannot be treated using "ordinary" non-relativistic quantum mechanics, the stuff you study in your first few undergraduate years.Daniel Petka said:
Are you referring to the polarisation here?Daniel Petka said:
I think the polarization angle lies in the plane orthogonal to the momentum. Which is only one degree of freedom.Daniel Petka said:
A probability amplitude is a complex number used in quantum mechanics to describe the likelihood of a particle, such as a photon, being in a certain state at a given time. It combines both the magnitude and phase of a wave function, which represents the probability of finding the particle in a specific location or state.
In quantum mechanics, photons are described as wave-like particles with a probability amplitude representing the likelihood of the photon being in a certain location or state. The square of the probability amplitude gives the probability of finding the photon at that location or in that state.
A probability amplitude is a complex number that describes the likelihood of a particle being in a certain state, while a probability is a real number that represents the chance of an event occurring. The square of the probability amplitude gives the probability of finding the particle in a specific state, but the probability itself only gives the chance of the event happening.
The probability amplitude for a specific state is calculated by using the wave function of the particle at that state and applying the Schrödinger equation. This equation takes into account the particle's energy, potential, and other quantum properties to determine its probability amplitude.
Yes, probability amplitudes can be negative due to their complex nature. However, the square of the probability amplitude must always be a positive value, representing the probability of finding the particle in a certain state. This allows for interference effects, where positive and negative probability amplitudes can cancel each other out to create a probability of zero for a certain state.
