TITLE:
Investigation into the Photon’s Structure
AUTHORS:
Isaak Man’kin
KEYWORDS:
Generalized Maxwell Equations, Curvilinear Coordinates, Association of Electromagnetic Waves with Photons, Speed of Wave Propagation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.10 No.9,
September
27,
2023
ABSTRACT: In the present paper we look at the structure of the photon from the point of view of electrodynamics using the generalized Maxwell equations. The reason for our analysis is that today the photon is viewed as a quantum of an electromagnetic field in the form of a harmonic transverse flat wave that travels through vacuum with the speed of light c. In this case the wave’s front takes the form of an infinite plane. From a physical point of view such a concept, in our opinion, is not very convincing when it comes to representing a photon as a local particle. Indeed, such flat wave representation doesn’t agree well with the theory of the photoelectric effect introduced by Einstein back in 1905. The photoelectric effect is the phenomenon of the release of the electron from a material under the influence of electromagnetic radiation. Using the laws of conversation of energy and momentum during the collision between a photon and an electron as two particles, Einstein was able to obtain the experimentally observed photoelectric effect that was not previously explainable using classical physics. In various nuclear reactions, the photon behaves like a particle that conforms to the conservation laws. Considering the above, we will show using the generalized Maxwell equations that the electromagnetic wave associated to the photon is not necessarily a flat one, but rather a cylindrical one.