BeyondFar

Quantum mechanics introduces the concept of identical particles, and according to the quantum number of spin, particles are divided into two categories: fermions with a half-integer spin and bosons with an integer spin. Are identical particles really exactly the same? In fact, the "identity" here is statistically identical, that is, "identical particles" refer to particles that satisfy the same statistical laws (Fermi statistics and Bose statistics). Specific to a single particle, it can still have different states, such as spin states. There is another difference between individual particles, which is the particle chirality, a brain-burning concept. According to the current theory, the chirality of a particle can be described by its spin or helicity. But the most puzzling thing is how to determine the chirality of a particle, that is, how to determine the direction of the particle's spin? For example, how to distinguish between left-handed electrons and right-handed electrons for electrons? Or, are there really right-handed electronics? Is the electrical polarity of electrons related to spin chirality?

Photons are the excited state of the ZPE field (creation) when EM waves pass; after EM waves passed, photons back to ground state of ZPE (annihilation).

what I proposed is the ZPE is the quantum field which could be excited by EM wave. ZPE field spreads in the universe. The momentum is actually from the EM wave; However, the angular momentum is from quantum harmonic oscillator (ZPE). The energy of an activated photon includes two part: the wave energy Ew=c*p/2, and the spin energy Es=h*v/2; where p is the EM wave momentum and the v is the oscillator spin frequency(same as EM wave frequency as a photon is the resonance of the EM wave with the ZPE oscillator).

Good question. I don't know. But, how would you test it's not true? The proposed theory is just a challenge to the existing theories as they are not consistent with each other, e.g. double slit experiment is solvable with Maxwell's classical wave equations; however, you have to refer to QM for the explanation of photon's particle nature. Actually, let's find out if the non-propagating photon hypothesis would cause unreasonable results. Also, maybe there are more than one way to describe the physics phenomenon, even for the famous Dirac equation, there are 2 groups of Dirac matrices.

With the theory above that EM waves propagate while photons are just activated and deactivated, double-slit experiment can be explained; and the photon's spin state of superposition can be regarded as due to the different harmonic oscillators that EM waves activate.

Below is the proposed theory: The amplitude of an EM wave reflects its intensity and can be represented by the number of photons it activates; There is a photon field (quantum) which acted as the medium for the propagation of EM waves; The zero-point energy (ZPE) in vacuum is actually the harmonic oscillator which represents the ground state of the photon field (quantum); The photon's spin property is from the harmonic oscillator, which is a superposition state; It's the EM wave that propagates while activating photons to present its particle nature, photons don't propagate.

Thanks to all commenters for your comments. The questions I asked are actually not new. However, I could not find a convincing model of photons to answer them. Let's keep discussing. Also, Thanks to Science Forum for providing the discussion platform.

BeyondFar (2021-04) Are photons just electromagnetic waves? I really can't say that. As we know, electromagnetic waves come from changes in electromagnetic fields; therefore, electromagnetic waves typically have different amplitudes to reflect the different changes in electromagnetic fields. One of the most critical questions is: do photons have different amplitudes? Obviously not, which means, photons are not electromagnetic waves. There is another indicator that photons are not electromagnetic waves. Anyone who has done the secondary quantization of electromagnetic fields knows that it is more complicated than the quantization of other particle fields. Since the electromagnetic field naturally satisfies the Lorenz covariance, there is no reason to be more difficult to quantize it than the wave function of a particle. Actually, this just proves that the electromagnetic field is not a photon quantum field, and Maxwell's equations should not be the object for quantization. Therefore, the quantization of electromagnetic fields is very far-fetched, and the object of quantization should be the photon quantum field. Then, what's the relationship between photons and electromagnetic waves? Electromagnetic waves are the fluctuations of electromagnetic fields in classical physics, but they have the appearance of photons. So how can the fluctuations of continuous electromagnetic fields become quantized photons? Leaving aside those "beautiful" generation & annihilation operators for photons, what actually happened in the physical process? This question may not have been asked in the early days of quantum mechanics, but it definitely needs to be explored now. At the beginning of the last century, Hilbert, the famous mathematician who made Einstein jealous, once said "Physics is too hard for physicists" which ridiculed the limited mathematical knowledge of physicists at that time. After that, physicists worked hard to study mathematics, and the requirements for mathematics in physics research became higher and higher. In any case, after Einstein, the requirements of mathematics in physics research are getting higher and higher. This is of course a good thing. The precise description of physical phenomena is inseparable from rigorous mathematical support. However, entering the new century, I personally feel that the influence of mathematics on physics is a bit overcorrected. Many results of physics research in these years can tell that physics is becoming more and more mathematical. Actually, mathematics has made many physicists forget the original intention of physics research. Back to the above question, what is the physical process of the quantization of electromagnetic waves into photons? The answer to this question may be found in the quantum field theory (QFT), where photons are regarded as excited states of photon quantum fields. Maybe, it's the electromagnetic waves that activates the photon quantum fields. When the electromagnetic wave propagates, it resonates with the photon quantum harmonic oscillator of the same frequency and is activated as photons; the amplitude of the electromagnetic wave is converted into the number of activated photons. The stronger the electromagnetic wave, the more activated photons. From the black body radiation formula to the latest research in quantum mechanics, it has revealed the truth of "vacuum is not empty", and this non-empty vacuum must have something that we don't know about. It is likely to help us reveal how electromagnetic waves are quantized into photons. It should be the most reasonable prediction that the zero-point energy (ZPE) in vacuum is actually the photon quantum harmonic oscillator which represents the ground state of the photon quantum field that can be activated by electromagnetic waves, let us wait and see. Although Einstein proposed many years ago that there is no need to assume the existence of ether for the propagation of light, quantum field theory tells us that the propagation of light waves may really require a "medium"-a photon quantum field. Seeing these, do you still think that photons are electromagnetic waves?

Photons and electromagnetic waves.pdf