- #1
kcodon
- 81
- 0
Hi everyone,
I have some questions on the nature of virtual photons. Firstly, are they actually particles (in the sense that a normal photon is a particle), or are they just mathematical consequences...and if so, what is their nature?
Secondly I have some questions still unanswered from a post a little while ago on virtual photons...
Thanks,
Kcodon
I have some questions on the nature of virtual photons. Firstly, are they actually particles (in the sense that a normal photon is a particle), or are they just mathematical consequences...and if so, what is their nature?
Secondly I have some questions still unanswered from a post a little while ago on virtual photons...
If anyone could answer this question of Sneills I'd be greatly interested in the answer...
I have a question, if a photon is exchanged between the two electrons as in the diagram, why is it that the e- emitting the photon recoils only when it is close to another e-? Or, why is it that it emits a photon only when it come close to another e-? This doesn't make sense to me as according to this theory an e- should be continuously emitting photons regardless of how close it is to another e- and therefor be continuously loosing energy. Do we observe a decrease in energy for the e- which emitted the photon and a gain in the absorbing e-?
So either Sneills point about how does the electron know when to emit a virtual photon, or the electron is continuously emitting virtual photons, but yes, how does the electron "know" which virtual photons to recoil from, as if it were continually emitting them in every direction the net force would be zero. This indicates some other form of field that tells the virtual photons either where to point or the like, to describe the change in motion...again back to a field. Also how does one photon "know" the speed to be emitted so as to cause an equal change in momentum for both electrons? I don't like using the term "know" but there is little else for it.
And is it, or will it ever be possible to measure an EM force to the degree so as to see if it is quantised to the degree predicted by QM i.e. virtual photons? Millikan got some fairly accurate measurement going on, and that was a wee while ago...
Thanks,
Kcodon