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  • Writer's pictureKalle Lintinen

Photon is a Quantum of Absorbed Light, not THE quantum of Light

I was just asked a the question of whether I wanted to overrule quantum electrodynamics with my new theory. The question related to my claim that light has a mass, specifically to the mass of a photon.


While I had discussed the issue in the manuscript, the language of the article was quite technical and this point probably quite easy to miss.


You see, a photon is a quantum of absorbed light, but not the true quantum of light. This requires some explanation. But in short it means that all of the theories up to now are mostly just fine and explain much of the quantum phenomena exceptionally well.


As a matter of fact I don't know whether you need a revision to the existing theory relating to matters of physics. However, you do regarding chemistry. When we have a solution or a dispersion, the molecules in the are not randomly arranged, but are either present as their 'regular' quantum state, or trapped within a supramolecular orbital of the solvent. The 'regular' quantum state you find by infrared spectroscopy or ultraviolet/visible spectroscopy. If the molecule is not dissolved by the solvent, it will form its own supramolecular orbital, whose size can be found just by looking at its spectrum.


But let's get back to what a photon is. It's a piece of string of spheres of Planck length. It is not the full quantum of light, but the fraction of the full quantum, absorbed by an individual molecule/atom. Thus, you cannot determine the mass of the quantum of light, just by looking at the energy of the photon. You see, the smaller the ring, the larger the fraction of its energy is absorbed by a single molecule, atom, or a single bond. The smallest photons, such as gamma rays are so small that they hit individual chemical bonds, and as such can wreak havoc on these molecules. The largest photons, such as radio waves are so large that their energy is divided between an unimaginably large number of molecules. Because of this, they can do no harm.


The challenge in changing our understanding is a bit like looking at the true quantum of light as a cake and the photon as a piece of this cake. Light with a large wavelenght is like the thin slab cakes served in large parties with a large number of guests. The cake may be large, but the individual portions can quite small. Light of a small wavelength is like a large cupcake. Not that big, but as an individual portion can be much larger than a piece of slab cake.


What this means is that while E = mc² is not exactly wrong with regards to individual photons, asking for the mass of a photon is like asking how long is a piece of string.


Or more specifically, using the equation E = hc/λ to determine the energy of the photon is the only way. And if you want to know its mass, it's m = h/cλ, which means that the longer the wavelength, the shorter the piece of string.


I would even say, that the phrase: "a photon is an elementary particle" is problematic. If we want to ascribe elementary particles to quanta relating to light, either to the photon or to the true quantum of light, the only rational elementary particle is a Planck sphere. I am not the first person to coin the phrase, but what Planck sphere means in the conventional string theory is so different that for the lay person it is probably easier to not to compare the two. Both the energy of the photon and the energy of the true quantum of light are directly related to a discreet number of these Planck spheres. Whether in light or in conventional matter, these spheres move at the speed of light. They cannot be slowed down, or sped up.


There's just one more thing. The supramolecular orbital is double spherical surface and the true quantum of light is a circular ring. However, rather counterintuitively the ring doesn't give its energy to just the molecules on a circular path in the supramolecular orbital, but to all of the molecules in it.


Or even more commonly, the quantum of light is absorbed by matter, but not incorporated in it. This means that if water absorbs a quantum of light with a wavelenght of 2898 nm, there will be no incorporation of this energy to water. Most absorbption of light is like this. To do actual photochemistry, the molecules either have to quite specifically designed for the reaction, or then you need to use light with small wavelength, which in turn can damage the whole structure.


I hope my explanation helped a bit with the confusion.

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