Qualitative description of photon from faraway star

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    Photon Star
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the qualitative description of a photon emitted from a distant star as it approaches a CCD detector. Participants explore concepts related to the electromagnetic wave nature of photons, their spatial distribution, and the implications of wave function collapse upon detection. The conversation touches on both quantum mechanical interpretations and classical perspectives.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants describe a photon as an electromagnetic wave characterized by oscillating electric and magnetic fields, raising questions about the fields' behavior just before detection.
  • Others propose that the photon could be viewed as a spherical wavefront expanding from its point of origin, leading to discussions about the likelihood of absorption events occurring before reaching the detector.
  • One viewpoint suggests that the photon must be "aimed" precisely to hit the Earth, while another counters that an expanding wavefront does not require such precision.
  • Participants discuss the implications of wave function collapse, suggesting that the photon’s energy is either spread out over a large area or concentrated at the point of detection.
  • Some argue that the nature of the photon is influenced by its creation process, such as black body radiation from stars, which affects its distribution and behavior.
  • There are inquiries about the relationship between the photon’s wavefunction and the spatial extent of its electric and magnetic fields, including how these fields relate to the wavelength of the photon.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the nature of the photon, whether it should be considered as a wavefront or a localized particle, and the implications of these perspectives for understanding absorption events. The discussion remains unresolved with multiple competing views present.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the dependence on interpretations of quantum mechanics, the assumptions about the spatial distribution of the photon, and the unresolved nature of how the wavefunction relates to the physical characteristics of the electric and magnetic fields.

Who May Find This Useful

Readers interested in quantum mechanics, the nature of light, and the behavior of photons in astrophysical contexts may find this discussion relevant.

  • #31
Cthugha said:
Either I completely misunderstand you or we are talking past each other. My usage of thermal broadening is that a line is broadened because the emission comes from many atoms/ions/emitters/whatever that have very different velocities. This spread in the velocities causes the line to broaden. The recoil does not alter this. The cool thing Mössbauer achieved was rather the possibility of resonance fluorescence - absorption and emission (if one can even call it that way) of indistinguishable photons.
Err, yes - my mia culpa there. Meant frequency down-shift owing to either single-or-two emitter recoil would be much greater than if a collective many-particle sharing recoil were in effect. I was crossing that over in head with that value of thermal line broadening is consistent with more or less free single particles which then in a way comes back to nature of recoil processes going on. Never mind.
Hmm, you can shoot weak emission or even single photons at whatever you like. You may do experiments like antibunching (two detectors never fire simultaneously when you fire a single photon at them) to test loading theory, I think. The joint detection rate should have some dependence on the threshold energy.
An area I know next to nothing about, but may try and chase up. There is one person who has apparently solid evidence for 'funny business' in this matter involving very high energy EM radiation - gamma rays in fact. But I say no more.
Anyway, I thought loading theory is dead anyway?
Pretty sure there are at least one or two proponents lurking here. Again I say no more.
It is not too clear to me, why the detection rate should depend on the photon model. In the statistical ensemble, the results will be the same. A purely point-like photon will, however, always create problems when you try to explain interference experiments. Especially two-photon interference gets non-intuitive using a bullet-photon model.
Yes understand the appeal of wave model and would much otherwise prefer it. And as stated earlier, certainly don't subscribe to a bullet-photon concept. Have no idea if D-B theory or something else holds all the answers interpretation wise. Anyway I'm about done on this but thanks for some stimulating feedback. I had not considered the aspect of environmental decoherence before. Cheers. :zzz:
 

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