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What is a Photon?

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What is a Photon?
Daphne Anne Pollacco
BSc Maths and Physics
University of Malta
 What is a photon?
Daphne Anne Pollacco
BSc Maths and Physics

University of Malta

9th November 2014

Abstract
The nature of the photon is subject of intense debate up to this day. What is the
exact nature of a photon? Is it a particle, a wave or simply a gauge boson? In order to
tackle such a question certain extrinsic properties of the photon have to be determined.
Such properties are its mass, charge and hadronic properties. But if we measure such
properties, how can we be sure that such properties are correct? What is the degree of
certainty in our measurement? Furthermore, how can we locate a photon without affecting
its properties? We shall take on these questions in the following article by understanding
how photons interact with matter and adopting a qualitative research approach.

1 Introduction
A photon is an elementary particle describing the quantum nature of light and all other
forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is the force carrier for the electromagnetic force.
The effects of this force are easily observed at both the microscopic, and macroscopic,
level resulting from the fact that the photon has zero rest mass; allowing for long dis-
tance interactions. Photons are best explained through quantum mechanics like all other
elementary particles and exhibit waveparticle duality.
Albert Einstein was the first to develop the modern concept of a photon through experi-
mental observations. This new concept did not agree with the classical wave model of light.
In contrast with the wave theory of light, the photon model accounted for the frequency
dependence of light’s energy, and explained the ability of matter and radiation to be in
thermal equilibrium with each other. The new photon model also accounted for anomalous
observations, such as black-body radiation, a phenomenon that other physicists, such as
Max Planck, had sought to explain using semiclassical models. The ‘Compton scattering
experiment of single photons by electrons, first carried out in 1923, validated Einstein’s
hypothesis that light itself is quantized.
In the Standard Model of particle physics, photons are described as a necessary con-
sequence of physical laws having a certain symmetry at every point in spacetime. This
gauge symmetry allows us to determine the intrinsic properties of photons, such as charge,
mass and spin. Moreover, the photon concept has led to various advances in experimental
and theoretical physics, such as lasers, Bose-Einstein condensation, quantum field the-
ory, and the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. As we shall see later on,
photons are also being applied in photochemistry, high-resolution microscopy, and mea-
surements of molecular distances. Recently, photons have been studied as elements of
quantum computers and for applications in optical imaging and optical communication
such as quantum cryptography.

1
2 What are the basic physical properties of a
photon?
A photon is massless, has no electric charge [1], and is stable. A photon has two possible
polarization states. In quantum field theory the momentum representation is preferred.
In this representation, a photon is described by its wave vector, which determines its
wavelength λ and its direction of propagation. A photon’s wave vector may not be zero
and can be represented either as a spatial three-vector or as a (relativistic) four-vector
usually represented by the light cone shown in Figure 1.
Photons are emitted in many naturally occuring radiative processes. During a molec-
ular, atomic or nuclear transition to a lower energy level, photons of various energy are
emitted. These range from radio waves to gamma rays. A photon can also be emitted
when a particle and its corresponding antiparticle are annihilated. In deriving equations
for the energy of a photon and other particles such as electrons, concepts from quantum
mechanics and special relativity are used. Special relativity is useful since it predicts the
momentum p and wavelength λ of the “particle”. Together with quantum mechanics these
statistics yield the general equations given below where m is the rest mass and E the total
energy. [2] It is important to note for now that photons have zero rest mass. The reason
for this shall be explained later on. In empty space, the photon moves at c (the speed of
light) and its energy and momentum are related by E = pc, where p is the magnitude of
the momentum vector p. This derives from the following relativistic relation, with m = 0
[3]:
E 2 = p2 c2 + m2 c4 (1)

Moreover the energy and momentum of a photon depend only on its frequency ν or
inversely, its wavelength λ:
hc
E = h̄ω = hν = p = h̄k (2)
λ
h
where k is the wavenumber and h̄ = is the reduced Planck constant. [4] Since p
2π
points in the direction of the photon’s propagation, the magnitude of the momentum is

hν h
p = h̄k = = (3)
c λ
The photon also carries spin angular
√ momentum that does not depend on its frequency.
[5] The magnitude of its spin is 2h̄ and the component measured along its direction of
motion, its helicity (a combination of the spin and the linear motion of a subatomic
particle), must be ±h̄. [6]

2.1 The photon as a gauge boson

In particle physics, a gauge boson is a force carrier, a bosonic particle that carries any of
the fundamental interactions of nature. The Standard Model of particle physics recognizes
four kinds of gauge bosons: photons, which carry the electromagnetic interaction; W and Z
bosons, which carry the weak interaction; and gluons, which carry the strong interaction
(refer to Figure 2). These elementary particles, whose interactions are described by a
gauge theory, interact with each other by the exchange of gauge bosons. In a quantized
gauge theory, gauge bosons are quanta of the gauge fields. Consequently, there are as
many gauge bosons as there are generators of the gauge field.
The electromagnetic field can be understood as a gauge field, a field that results from
requiring that gauge symmetry holds independently at every position in spacetime. In
quantum electrodynamics, the gauge group is the Abelian U(1) symmetry group of a
complex number which reflects the ability to vary the phase of a complex number without

2
affecting observables or real valued functions made from it, such as the energy or the
Lagrangian. The only gauge boson in this field is the photon. For technical reasons
involving gauge invariance, gauge bosons are required to be massless particles. The other
gauge bosons on the other hand have mass, owing to a mechanism that breaks their SU(2)
gauge symmetry. [7][8][9] From this we deduce that all other quantum numbers of the
photon such as lepton number, baryon number, flavour quantum numbers as well as charge
take on zero values. The only quantum number to have integer values is spin, having values
of ±1. From spin we can further derive the helicity of the photon which is found to take
on values of ±h̄. These two spin components correspond to the classical concepts of right-
handed and left-handed circularly polarized light. However, the transient virtual photons
of quantum electrodynamics may also adopt unphysical polarization states. [10]

2.2 Waveparticle duality and uncertainty principles

Photons, like all quantum objects, exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties.
The photon displays clearly wave-like phenomena such as diffraction and interference on
the length scale of its wavelength. Young’s double slit experiment is clear evidence of
this. In this experiment a single photon passing through a double-slit lands on the screen
exhibiting interference patterns. To account for the particle interpretation we make use
of probability distribution functions which behave in accordance to Maxwell’s equations.
[11]
Experiments have shown that the photon is not a short pulse of electromagnetic radi-
ation since it does not spread out as it propagates, nor does it divide once it encounters
a beam splitter. [12] On the other hand, the photon seems to be a point-like particle
since it is absorbed or emitted as a whole by arbitrarily small systems, having relatively
very large wavelengths. Such systems include the atomic nucleus which is approximately
1015 m across and even the point-like electron.
Nevertheless, the photon is not a point-like particle whose trajectory is shaped proba-
bilistically by the electromagnetic field. The important distinction between particles such
as electrons and photons is that electrons obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, whereas photons
obey Bose-Einstein statistics. A consequence of Fermi-Dirac statistics is that no two elec-
trons in the same interacting system can be in the same state, that is, have precisely
the same physical properties. Bose-Einstein statistics impose no such prohibition, so that
identical photons with the same energy, momentum, and polarization can occur together
in large numbers, as they do, for example in a laser cavity. In the theory called quan-
tum electrodynamics, which combines the principles of quantum mechanics with those of
special relativity, photons interact only with charges. In this theory, the wave-particle
duality becomes reconciled in the sense that both classical waves and classical particles
are seen to have the same basic nature, which is neither wholly wave nor wholly particle.
[2]

2.3 Does the photon have mass?

Photons are said to be massless but the mass of the photon is set to zero, in order to
satisfy conditions of special relativity as we shall see in this section. Consider an isolated
system of one particle which is being accelerated to some velocity v. Using Newtonian
mechanics we get that the particle’s momentum p must be proportional to v where the
proportionality constant is simply the particle’s mass m, such that p = mv. [13][14]
In special relativity, it turns out that although p and v still point in the same direction,
these two vectors are no longer proportional. To solve this, the best alternate way to define
p is through the particle’s “relativistic mass” mrel . This yields:

p = mrel v (4)

3
 which tells us that when the particle is at rest, its relativistic mass has a minimum
value called the “rest mass”.mrest . As the particle is then accelerated to higher speeds, its
relativistic mass increases indefinitely. It also turns out that in special relativity, we are
able to define the concept of energy E, such that it has simple and well-defined properties
similar to those used in Newtonian mechanics. [13] [14] In fact, when a particle is accel-
erated such that it has some momentum p (the length of the vector p) and relativistic
mass mrel , then its energy E is,

E = mrel c2 E 2 = p2 c2 + m2rest c4 (5)

There are two interesting cases resulting from the last equation (which is just a slightly
different equation to the one given in the previous section).
• If the particle is at rest, then p = 0, and E = mrest c2 .
• If we set the rest mass equal to zero (regardless of whether or not that’s a reasonable
thing to do), then E = pc so that there is no distinction between a photon’s total
energy and its kinetic energy. [12]
In reality photons cannot be brought to rest, so the idea of rest mass doesn’t really
apply to them. We can thus bring these “particles” of light into the fold of equation (1)
by considering them to have no rest mass. By so doing, equation (1) gives the correct
expression for light, E = pc, and it can now be used as a fully general equation. [13] [14]
The big question is whether we can verify the rest mass of a photon to be zero through
experiments. The truth is that such an experiment is unnattainable. The best we can
do is to place limits on the maximum value of the rest mass of a photon. A non-zero
rest mass would introduce a small damping factor in the inverse square Coulomb law of
electrostatic forces. That means the electrostatic force would be weaker over very large
distances. [13][14]

2.4 Heisenberg’s thought Experiment

A key element of quantum mechanics is Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which forbids
the simultaneous measurement of the position and momentum of a particle along the same
direction. Remarkably, the uncertainty principle for charged, material particles requires
the quantization of light into photons, and even the frequency dependence of the photon’s
energy and momentum. [15] Heisenberg’s thought experiment goes as follows: the position
of the electron can be determined to within the resolving power of the microscope, which
is given by a formula from classical optics
λ
∆x ∼ (6)
sin θ
where θ is the aperture angle of the microscope. Thus, the position uncertainty ∆x can
be made arbitrarily small by reducing the wavelength λ. The momentum of the electron
is uncertain, since it received a “kick” ∆p from the light scattering from it into the
microscope. If light were not quantized into photons, the uncertainty ∆p could be made
arbitrarily small by reducing the light’s intensity. In that case, since the wavelength and
intensity of light can be varied independently and one could simultaneously determine the
position and momentum to arbitrarily high accuracy, violating the uncertainty principle.
By contrast, Einstein’s formula for photon momentum preserves the uncertainty principle;
since the photon is scattered anywhere within the aperture, the uncertainty of momentum
transferred equals
h
∆p ∼ pphoton sin θ = sin θ (7)
λ
giving the product ∆x∆p ∼ h, which is Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Within
the same analogy, the uncertainty principle for locating a photon forbids the simultaneous

4
measurement of the number of photons in an electromagnetic wave and the phase φ of
that wave such that
∆n∆φ > 1 (8)

Both photons and material particles such as electrons create analogous interference
patterns when passing through a double-slit experiment. For photons, this corresponds to
the interference of a Maxwell light wave whereas, for material particles, this corresponds to
the interference of the Schrödinger wave equation. Although this similarity might suggest
that Maxwell’s equations are simply Schrödinger’s equation for photons, most physicists
do not agree. [16][17] For one thing, they are mathematically different, since Schrödinger’s
one equation solves for a complex field, whereas Maxwell’s four equations solve for real
fields. More generally, the normal concept of a Schrödinger probability wave function
cannot be applied to photons. [18] Being massless, they cannot be localized without
being destroyed; technically, photons cannot have a position eigenstate |ri and, thus, the
h
normal Heisenberg uncertainty principle ∆x∆p > does not pertain to photons.
2

2.5 Bose Einstein model of a photon gas

Max Planck (1858-1947), in a paper presented on December 14, 1900, guessed the answer
to a problem, and this guess marked the very beginning of quantum mechanics. The
problem was that the observed spectrum of the radiation emitted from a black-body
could not be explained in terms of classical electromagnetic theory. It was not a minor
problem: Classical theory predicted an infinite energy of radiation, a disagreement so
gross it was called the ‘ultraviolet catastrophe’. [19] This led to the new definition of a
‘black-body’. A black-body is a body which absorbs all types of radiation incident on it.
The most common example of black-body radiation is a photon gas, whereby the
energy distribution is established by the interaction of photons with matter, usually with
the walls of the container. In such a system the photons and the container are in thermal
equilibrium with each other. [20] Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), a state of matter in
which separate atoms or subatomic particles, cooled to near absolute zero, coalesce into a
single quantum mechanical entity, that is, one that can be described by a wave function,
on a near-macroscopic scale. [21] This form of matter was predicted in 1924 by Albert
Einstein on the basis of the quantum formulations of the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath
Bose and then observed experimentally in 1995. [22] It was later used by Lene Hau to
slow, and then completely stop, light in 1999 and 2001. In 2010, Bose-Einstein Condensate
was seen for the first time at room temperature for photons trapped in a dye between
mirrors. [20]

2.6 The hadronic properties of the photon

An approach attempting to explain experimental results of photon-hadron interactions
claims that a physical photon is composed of a pure electromagnetic component and a
hadronic component. According to this claim, the wave function of a physical photon
takes the form:
|γ >= c0 |γ0 > +ch |h > (9)

where |γ > denotes the wave function of a physical photon, |γ0 > denotes the pure
electromagnetic component of a physical photon and |h > denotes its hadronic compo-
nent. c0 and ch are appropriate numerical coefficients. This relation shows us that a real
photon fluctuates between a pure electromagnetic state and a hadronic state. Moreover,
this fluctuation is an inherent property of the photon and is independent of its distance
from the hadronic target. The relative time allotted to each state is proportional to the
absolute value of the square of the corresponding coefficient of the equation above. This

5
approach takes several ramifications, many of which are known as Vector Meson Domi-
nance (VMD) or Vector Dominance Models (VDM). These approaches assume that the
hadronic part of (9) above is a neutral vector meson, which has the same spin, parity and
charge conjugation quantum numbers as the photon. [23] From VMD, it has been deduced
that the hadronic structure of the photon arises from its direct coupling to quarks, i.e. the
possibility it has to split into a quark-antiquark pair or to transform to a vector meson V.
[24] According to VMD, the photon is a superposition of the pure electromagnetic photon
(which interacts only with electric charges) and vector mesons. [25] A related claim states
that |h >, the hadronic part of (1), may belong to a larger set of hadronic states. All
these approaches are called below Photons Hadronic Structure Approaches (PHSA). [23]

2.7 Photons in matter

Any ‘explanation’ of how photons travel through matter has to take into account why
different arrangements of matter are transparent or opaque at different wavelengths and
why individual photons behave in the same way as large groups. Explanations that
invoke ‘absorption’ and ‘re-emission’ have to provide an answer for the directionality of
the photons (diffraction, reflection) and further illustrate how entangled photon pairs can
travel through matter without their quantum state collapsing.
The simplest explanation is that light traveling through transparent matter does so
at a speed lower than c, the speed of light in a vacuum. In addition, light can also
undergo scattering and absorption. The factor by which the speed of light is decreased in
a material is called the refractive index of the material. Photons may be viewed as always
traveling at c, even in matter, but they have their phase shifted (delayed or advanced)
upon interaction with atomic scatters. This modifies their wavelength and momentum, but
not their speed. Photons can also be absorbed by nuclei, atoms or molecules, provoking
transitions between their energy levels. It is important to note though that since photons
are electrically neutral, they do not steadily lose energy via coulombic interactions with
atomic electrons, as do charged particles. [26]

2.8 Technological applications and recent research

Photons have many applications in technology. The most important application is the
laser. There are various methods one can use to detect individual photons. For example,
the classic photomultiplier tube exploits the photoelectric effect in order to detect photons.
The charge-coupled device chips use a similar effect in semiconductors: an incident photon
generates a charge on a microscopic capacitor that can be detected. Other detectors such
as Geiger counters use the ability of photons to ionize gas molecules, causing a detectable
change in conductivity. [27]
Planck’s energy formula E = hν is often used by engineers and chemists in design,
both to compute the change in energy resulting from a photon absorption and to predict
the frequency of the light emitted for a given energy transition. For example, the emission
spectrum of a fluorescent light bulb can be designed using gas molecules with different
electronic energy levels and adjusting the typical energy with which an electron hits the
gas molecules within the bulb.
Much research has been devoted to applications of photons in the field of quantum op-
tics. Photons seem well-suited to be elements of an extremely fast quantum computer, and
the quantum entanglement of photons is a focus of research. Nonlinear optical processes
are another active research area, with topics such as two-photon absorption, self-phase
modulation, modulational instability and optical parametric oscillators. The nonlinear
process of spontaneous parametric down conversion is often used to produce single-photon
states. Finally, photons are essential in some aspects of optical communication, especially
for quantum cryptography. [28]

6
3 Appendix

Figure 1: The cone shows possible values of wave 4-vector of a photon. The ”time” axis gives the
angular frequency (rads1) and the ”space” axes represent the angular wavenumber (radm1).
Green and indigo represent left and right polarization. [29]

Figure 2: The Standard Model of elementary particles, with the gauge bosons in the fourth
column in red. [30]

Figure 3: Large Hadron collider in Cern. [31]

7
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 [23] Bose, S.N. (1924). “Plancks Gesetz und Lichtquantenhypothese”. Zeitschrift fr
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