the dual nature of light

[Clifford Steven]

What are the scientific ramifications of Albert Einstein's statement that "particles of matter are, at bottom, condensations of electromagnetism?

[Klaynos]

Do you have a citation for that quote?

[Clifford Steven]

I have just moved and my physics library is in storage. I will search out that quotation, and give you the source. But if it is genuine, and true, what would be the ramifications in quantum physics?

[Klaynos]

The context could be as important as whether it's true or not

[timo]

Not to forget that nature cares pretty little about what Prof. Einstein said or did not say. Just because he's the most famous physicist does not need to mean that everything he said makes sense or even is correct.

[Clifford Steven]

I will find the source for this citation and post it in the near future. However, I have fifty books on Albert Einstein and his writings, so it may take some time. I believe the quotation is to be found in one of these three writings of Albert Einstein:

 

"On the Theory of the Generation and Absorption of Light", Analen der Physik, 20, 1996, pp. 199-206.

 

"On the Development of Our Views on the Nature and Constitution of Radiation", Lecture, Salzburg, Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaat, 11, 1909, pp. 482-500.

 

"Theory of Light Quanta and the Question of the Location of Electromagnetic Energy", Archives des sciences physiques et naturales", 29, 1919, pp. 525-528.

[ajb]

Maybe be related...

 

Edwin Beggs found a monopole solution for QED in a (4+2) dimensional space that fibres over the usual (3+1) dimensional space. He shows that the corresponding electromagnetic field on space-time is that of a point electric charge. This suggests that the electron could be an EM soliton.

 

Anyway, this is the closest thing I know to the quote.

 

 

An electrically charged monopole in quantum electrodynamics

E J Beggs 1994 Nonlinearity 7 1343-1348