Nonzero Photon Mass Research Articles

How Stable is the Photon?

Yes, the photon. While a nonzero photon mass has been under experimental and theoretical study for years, the possible implication of a finite photon lifetime lacks discussion. The tight experimental upper bound of the photon mass restricts the kinematically allowed final states of photon decay to the lightest neutrino and/or particles beyond the standard model. We discuss the modifications of the well-measured cosmic microwave background spectrum of free streaming photons due to photon mass and lifetime and obtain model-independent constraints on both parameters--most importantly a lower direct bound of 3 yr on the photon lifetime, should the photon mass be at its conservative upper limit. In that case, the lifetime of microwave photons will be time-dilated by a factor order 10(15).

Closing a Window for Massive Photons

Working with the assumption of nonzero photon mass and a trajectory that is described by the nongeodesic world line of a spinning top we find, by deriving new astrophysical bounds, that this assumption is in contradiction with current experimental results. This yields the conclusion that such photons have to be exactly massless.

On Nonzero Photon Mass Within Wave-Particle Duality

The mass of a photon is one of the most intriguing ideas of theoretical physics, and their existence is consistently justified in the light of certain experimental data. In this paper the proposal for explanation of the nonzero photon mass in frames of the wave-particle duality is concisely presented. The standard formulation of the wave-particle duality is modified by the constant frequency field, which can be interpreted as the Zero-Point Frequency field. NeuroQuantology | March 2012 | Volume 10 | Issue 1 | Page 11-13

Illuminating the blackbody

The blackbody is one of the first topics the students face at the beginning of their studies on modern physics. The usual framework supposes that a blackbody emits radiation in a 3D space in the form of massless bosons (photons). This paper investigates the blackbody radiation in a more general context in order to discuss the physical hypotheses underlying it. After exposing in a nutshell standard calculations about blackbody radiation, this paper investigates the influence of a non-zero photon mass and of the dimensionality of space on the blackbody radiation. It also discusses the possibility of a fermion-emitting blackbody. The aim of this paper is mainly pedagogical because experimental evidence points towards a massless photon propagating in a 3D space: exploring hypothetical worlds can help better understand our world.

On the nonperturbative solution of Pauli–Villars-regulated light-front QED: A comparison of the sector-dependent and standard parameterizations

We consider quantum electrodynamics quantized on the light front in Feynman gauge and regulated in the ultraviolet by the inclusion of massive, negative-metric Pauli–Villars (PV) particles in the Lagrangian. The eigenstate of the electron is approximated by a Fock-state expansion truncated to include one photon. The Fock-state wave functions are computed from the fundamental Hamiltonian eigenvalue problem and used to calculate the anomalous magnetic moment, as a point of comparison. Two approaches are considered: a sector-dependent parameterization, where the bare parameters of the Lagrangian are allowed to depend on the Fock sectors between which the particular Hamiltonian term acts, and the standard choice, where the bare parameters are the same for all sectors. Both methods are shown to require some care with respect to ultraviolet divergences; neither method can allow all PV masses to be taken to infinity. In addition, the sector-dependent approach suffers from an infrared divergence that requires a nonzero photon mass; due to complications associated with this divergence, the standard parameterization is to be preferred. We also show that the self-energy effects obtained from a two-photon truncation are enough to bring the standard-parameterization result for the anomalous moment into agreement with experiment within numerical errors. This continues the development of a method for the nonperturbative solution of strongly coupled theories, in particular quantum chromodynamics.

The Feynman-Wheeler Perfect Absorber Theory in a New Light

The original Feynman-Wheeler perfect absorber theory lead to the Instantaneous Action at a Distance formulation. We observe that this is perfectly meaningful in the light of recent studies pointing to a small but non-zero photon mass. The Quantum Mechanical effects within the Compton scale of such a small mass photon would lead to the above formulation.

Systematics of high temperature perturbation theory: The two-loop electron self-energy in QED

In order to investigate the systematics of the loop expansion in high temperature gauge theories beyond the leading order hard thermal loop (HTL) approximation, we calculate the two-loop electron proper self-energy in high temperature QED. The two-loop bubble diagram contains a linear infrared divergence. Even if regulated with a non-zero photon mass M of order of the Debye mass, this infrared sensitivity implies that the two-loop self-energy contributes terms to the fermion dispersion relation that are comparable to or even larger than the next-to-leading-order (NLO) contributions at one-loop. Additional evidence for the necessity of a systematic restructuring of the loop expansion comes from the explicit gauge parameter dependence of the fermion damping rate at both one and two-loops. The leading terms in the high temperature expansion of the two-loop self-energy for all topologies arise from an explicit hard-soft factorization pattern, in which one of the loop integrals is hard, nested inside a second loop integral which is soft. There are no hard-hard contributions to the two-loop Sigma at leading order at high T. Provided the same factorization pattern holds for arbitrary ell loops, the NLO high temperature contributions to the electron self-energy come from ell-1 hard loops factorized with one soft loop integral. This hard-soft pattern is both a necessary condition for the resummation over ell to coincide with the one-loop self-energy calculated with HTL dressed propagators and vertices, and to yield the complete NLO correction to the self-energy at scales ~eT, which is both infrared finite and gauge invariant. We employ spectral representations and the Gaudin method for evaluating finite temperature Matsubara sums, which facilitates the analysis of multi-loop diagrams at high T.

Spectral analysis of the semi-relativistic Pauli–Fierz hamiltonian

We consider a charged particle, spin 1 2 , with relativistic kinetic energy and minimally coupled to the quantized Maxwell field. Since the total momentum is conserved, the Hamiltonian admits a fiber decomposition as H ( P ) , P ∈ R 3 . We study the spectrum of H ( P ) . In particular we prove that, for non-zero photon mass, the ground state is exactly two-fold degenerate and separated by a gap, uniformly in P, from the rest of the spectrum.

A Note on Massive Photons

Experimental tests for a non-zero but small photon mass, consistent with special relativity and observed limits, are discussed. The photon mass of 10−65gm deduced in earlier work is consistent with experimental limits, and it is pointed out that, contrary to popular belief, there is no experimental evidence that the photon mass vanishes. Some observable consequences of this mass are also discussed.

Neutron Star Magnetic Field as for Nonzero Photon Mass

We investigate the neutron star magnetic field by the relativemean-field theory, where the photon effective mass depending onbaryon density of charged particles is nonzero. This field isproduced by star itself, which is the function of baryon density.The result fits the observations.

Experimental tests of Coulomb's Law and the photon rest mass

Coulomb's Law is a fundamental principle describing the electric force between isolated charges, and represents the first quantitative law achieved in electromagnetism. The degree of confidence with which the law is experimentally known to hold was investigated after the law was put forth by Coulomb in 1785. The electrodynamics for massive particles suggests that a photon with a finite rest mass will cause a deviation from the inverse square law. So, modern interpretations of the possible deviation from Coulomb's inverse square law are usually associated with the non-zero photon mass. In this article, we first give a historical review of the foundation of Coulomb's inverse square law. Then, the experimental searches for validity of Coulomb's Law, particularly in its inverse square nature, are generally introduced. Based on Proca's equations, the unique simplest relativistic generalization of Maxwell's equations, the link between the deviation from Coulomb's Law and the upper limit on the photon rest mass based on the concentric-spheres apparatus established in the classical experiment of Cavendish is reviewed. Up to now, all the experiments show no evidence for a positive value, and the experimental result was customarily expressed as an upper limit on the deviation or on the photon rest mass. As a representative method with the double mission of testing of the validity of Coulomb's Law and of the photon rest mass, possible improvements for this kind of experiment are discussed.

Two-loop renormalization of Feynman gauge QED

We calculate the two-loop renormalization constants {delta}m, Z{sub 1}, and Z{sub 2} in Feynman gauge QED using dimensional regularization to control ultraviolet divergences and a non-zero photon mass to regulate infrared divergences.

Photon mass and Heaviside force

Some new observable consequences of the introduction into Maxwell's theory of light of a non-zero photon mass and associated O(3) gauge invariance are discussed, which apparently contradict its Copenhaguen interpretation. In this model light, in free space, is built with real fields and photons which both carry real energy momentum distributions. This implies that physical `vacuum' can contribute to an action equal reaction real process, mediated by the Heaviside force, and opens new ways to interpret recently observed phenomena, such as new terms in the Lorentz Force, now predicted by the Causal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.

New non-zero photon mass interpretation of the Sagnac effect as direct experimental justification of the Langevin paradox

The experimental discovery by Dufour and Prunier that the Sagnac fringe displacement does not change when the source and fringe detector are locally transferred from the rotating platform to the laboratory frame is interpreted as a natural result of general relativity theory when one introduces non-zero mass photons into the theory of light. It also yields a proof of the reality of Langevin's paradox as a natural consequence of assuming that non-zero mass photons (1) follow real space-time paths, (2) are associated with real physical internal clock-like motions, (3) imply the existence of an absolute local inertial frame Σ 0 first associated by Lorentz with Maxwell's equations.

Massive electrodynamics and the magnetic monopoles.

We investigate in detail the problem of constructing magnetic monopole solutions within finite-range electrodynamics (i.e., electrodynamics with nonzero photon mass, which is the simplest extension of the standard theory; it is fully compatible with experiment). We first analyze classical electrodynamics with the addtional terms describing the photon mass and the magnetic charge; then we look for a solution analogous to the Dirac monopole solution. Next, we plug the found solution into the Schr\"odinger equation describing the interaction between the magnetic charge and the electron. After that, we try to derive the Dirac quantization condition for our case. Since gauge invariance is lost in massive electrodynamics, we use the method of angular momentum algebra. Under rather general assumptions we prove the theorem that the construction of such an algebra is not possible and therefore the quantization condition cannot be derived. This points to the conclusion that the Dirac monopole and the finite photon mass cannot coexist within one and the same theory. Some physical consequences of this conclusion are considered. The case of the 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole is touched upon briefly. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

Photon mass as an equivalent of the energy of field compression into a waveguide mode

The general case of a waveguide with an arbitrary cross section is used to show that a nonzero photon mass is equivalent to the energy of a quantum of the critical frequency of a waveguide mode. This energy is equal to the work done against the light-pressure forces of zero-point fluctuations of vacuum in the course of compression of unbounded free space into a waveguide.

New geomagnetic limits on the photon mass and on long-range forces coexisting with electromagnetism

A new geomagnetic limit on the photon mass [ital m][sub [gamma]] is derived from an analysis of satellite measurements of the Earth's magnetic field [ital [rvec H]]. The primary effect of a nonzero photon mass is to generate an additional contribution to [ital [rvec H]] resembling that from an external source. We find [ital m][sub [gamma]][le]8[times]10[sup [minus]16] eV/[ital c][sup 2]=1[times]10[sup [minus]48] g=4[times]10[sup [minus]9] m[sup [minus]1]. The same data are also used to set new limits on long-range fields coexisting with electromagnetism.

Maxwell equations, nonzero photon mass, and conformal metric fluctuation

Maxwell equations are studied for a vacuum with nonzero conductivity coefficient. The loss of energy of a photon during its propagation through this vacuum is calculated and the nonzero rest mass of the photon is shown to be related to the conductivity coefficient of the vacuum. The dissipative mechanism is investigated considering a conformally fluctuating metric in the Einstein equation. Possible astrophysical consequences are discussed.

Does a possible laboratory observation of a frequency anisotropy of light result from a non-zero photon mass m?

Assuming a priori the existence of a non-zero photon rest-mass m γ>0 and justifying this assumption, we can predict the existence of an anisotropy in velocity and frequency of light in the direction of the apex of the 3 K background cosmic radiation field. Since this frequency shift can now be tested in the laboratory, it is important to improve the precision of these measurements in order to check our predictions. Its possible confirmation implies indeed the definition of an absolute evolution parameter in the rest frame Σ 0 of this 3 K background microwave radiation.

Evidence for nonzero mass photons associated with a vacuum-induced dissipative red-shift mechanism

Laboratory observations that suggest a frequency anisotropy in the direction of the Leo constellation of delta nu / nu >or=10/sup -6/ can be interpreted in terms of a nonzero photon mass m/sub gamma / equivalent to 10/sup -65/ g. If one then accepts the theory of light (considered as real Maxwellian waves and photons simultaneously) of Einstein and de Broglie, the experimental justification of the existence of real Maxwellian displacement currents implies the existence of m/sub gamma />0 and of a vacuum dissipative mechanism which can interpret a part (or the totality) of Hubble's cosmological red shift.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>