See another reference which gives a more complete description, such as this one. The basic idea is that a virtual photon turns into a quark-antiquark pair, which then turns into one of the vector mesons, and that furthermore all interactions of photons with hadrons take place predominantly via this process.Pseudo Epsilon said:the wiki article on vector meson dominance says "hadronic components of the physical photons". How can a photon have hadronic photon components? Could someone please enlighten me?
Hadronic components refer to the subatomic particles that make up the nucleus of an atom, such as protons and neutrons. These particles are made up of even smaller particles called quarks, which are bound together by the strong nuclear force.
A photon, which is a particle of light, is typically thought of as having no mass and no substructure. However, in certain high-energy collisions, a photon can temporarily split into a quark-antiquark pair, creating a hadronic component. This phenomenon is known as "photon splitting" or "hadronization."
The existence of hadronic components in photons has been demonstrated through experiments at particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider. These experiments have observed the production of jets of hadrons, which are evidence of photon splitting. Additionally, theoretical calculations based on the laws of quantum mechanics also support the idea of photon splitting.
The discovery of hadronic components in photons challenges our previous understanding of light as a purely massless and structureless particle. It suggests that photons may have more complexity and diversity than we previously thought, and that their behavior may be influenced by the strong nuclear force.
The study of hadronic components in photons could lead to new insights and developments in the fields of particle physics and quantum mechanics. It could also have practical applications, such as improving our understanding of high-energy collisions and potentially leading to new technologies for manipulating and controlling the behavior of light.