Challenging Photon Mass: from Scalar Quantum Electrodynamics to String Theory

Abstract

<b> </b><b> </b>A massless photon, originated already through the Maxwell theory of electromagnetism, is one of the basic paradigms of modern physics, ideally supported throughout both the quantum electrodynamics and the Higgs mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking which lays the foundations of the Standard Model of elementary particles and fundamental interactions. Nevertheless, the physical interpretation of the optical experimental data, such like observations of total internal reflection of the beam shift in the Goos–H¨anchen effect, concludes a photon mass. Is, therefore, light diversified onto two independent species - gauge photons and optical photons? Can such a state of affairs be consistently described through a unique theoretical model? In this paper, two models of a photon mass, arising from the scalar quantum electrodynamics with the Higgs potential, are discussed. The first scenario leads to a neutral scalar mass estimable throughout the experimental limits on a photon mass. In the modified mechanism, a neutral scalar mass in not affected throughout a photon mass and is determinable through the experimental data, while a massless dilaton is present and a non-kinetic massive vector field effectively results in the string theory of non-interacting invariant both a free photon and a neutral scalar, and the Aharonov–Bohm effect is considered. The Markov hypothesis on maximality of the Planck mass is applied.