Quote:
Originally Posted by Regulus
Thx Al, that seems like a good answer.
Is that to say that to maintain it's existence as a discrete energy packet it needs to move (at speed relative to the our ref. frame), else the energy is...,what, re-absorbed into the quantum foam or is employed otherwise as part of another quantum construct, or some such???
(forgive the lack of conceptual terminology please, but perhaps u understand the gist of the question)
Trev
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The photon doesn't maintain its existence. From its POV, it simply exists as a vector of energy from where it was emitted to where it is absorbed. Time has no meaning for the photon.
Quantum mechanics and the probability distribution affects when it is emitted in our reference frame, as well as other things. So once the photon is emitted, it simply exists. Where the photon is absorbed is determined by the energy vector of the photon - it has to be something able to absorb exactly that energy in the line of the vector. Deep in the core of a star that may be the atom next door, but it can't be the same atom it was emitted from.
Clear as mud?
Al.