What would happen if a photon had mass?

The speed of light is special: nothing with mass can move at that speed, or accelerate to it. If photons have mass, then obviously the “speed of light” becomes a misnomer. Massless particles would still travel at that speed — if any particles end up being massless after the carnage is done.

What happens when a photon is stopped?

When photons of that energy meet an atom, they can scatter and excite it to a higher level, thus the photon is absorbed and “dies”.

Can a photon gain mass?

A: This depends on what you mean by mass. If by mass you mean the inertial mass (the m in the momentum-velocity relation p=mv) a photon can gain some by falling in a gravitational field. However, in a vacuum the invariant (rest) mass will remain zero.

What happens when a photon increases?

As the frequency of a photon goes up, the wavelength () goes down, and as the frequency goes down, the wavelength increases. …

Why does a photon have no mass?

Why do photons have no mass? In short, the special theory of relativity predicts that photons do not have mass simply because they travel at the speed of light. This is also backed up by the theory of quantum electrodynamics, which predicts that photons cannot have mass as a result of U(1) -gauge symmetry.

Does a photon stop?

Photons move at the speed of light because they have no inherent mass to slow them down. Because they have no inherent mass, they can’t really be stopped per-se, because a photon that wasn’t moving would have no basis to even exist – really all a photon is depends on its movement.

What happens if a photon loses all its energy?

the energy and momentum of the photon is transferred to the electron and a new photon of lower energy appears. It cannot be completely absorbed because energy and momentum conservation would be violated, as the answer of @Chris says.

What effect would decreasing the wavelength of the photons have on the electrons leaving the surface?

What effect would decreasing the wavelength of the photons have on the electrons leaving the surface? There would be fewer electrons leaving the surface.

Which factor does not affect the photon?

Explanation: Photons have no charge. They can interact with charged particles but not with themselves. This is why photons are neutral and not affected by magnetic or electric fields. 6.

Do photons have mass?

After all, it has energy and energy is equivalent to mass. Photons are traditionally said to be massless. This is a figure of speech that physicists use to describe something about how a photon’s particle-like properties are described by the language of special relativity. The logic can be constructed in many ways, and the following is one such.

What happens to a photon when it passes through a glass?

The photon never slows down, as the particle goes through the medium of glass it is absorbed by the nearby electrons. The absorption and re-emitting of the photon takes time, we interpreted that as the photon slowing down. The photon is always going the same speed and always has zero mass. Highly active question.

What would happen if the rest mass of a photon was zero?

If the rest mass of the photon were non-zero, the theory of quantum electrodynamics would be “in trouble” primarily through loss of gauge invariance, which would make it non-renormalisable; also, charge conservation would no longer be absolutely guaranteed, as it is if photons have zero rest mass.

What causes the scattering amplitude of a photon to increase?

As correctly pointed out by Tobias, if there are more photons with the same energy and momentum nearby, the emitted photon will tend to have same characteristics. This is because photons are bosons and bosons like to occupy same states. Now, all of these processes contribute to the final scattering amplitude.