Photon
NOTE. The following monograph provides a further in-depth treatment of the subject: Correa, P & Correa, A (2012) "What is a photon? And how and why are photons massless?", J Aetherom Res, 2(9):1-30.
Basic Conventional Definition
Photon is a term introduced by quantum-mechanics into electromagnetic theory to designate a particle of light, or a quantum of electromagnetic energy. The particulate aspect of the photon was correlated to the expression of a constant quantized angular momentum (Planck's constant h), and its energy was given by the product of that constant of angular momentum with a frequency term. The accepted physical and geometrical representation of the photon involves a mathematical description of a fiber of light, forming bundles or packets that are stochastically represented by a ray.
Basic Aetherometric Definition
A photon is a swing (a particle, a conjunction of waves, and an energy packet) of electromagnetic energy. Its particulate aspect relates to its linear momentum (its existence as a particle) and the pressure it exerts upon adjacent matter. Its quantization relates to its constant of angular momentum, and its quantized energy forms two distinct spectra - blackbody and ionizing. Photons do not travel through space, nor do they have a fibrous structure. Photons are globular, not fascicular, and they are created and destroyed on the spot - ie local productions. Rays are simply a probabilistic way of approximating the physical reality of the phase or excitation wave that transmits 'across space' the indirect stimulus for the production of light. In the case of blackbody photons, a mediating term must always intervene between the phase wave and the production of photons, or light; the mediating term is always a massbound charge.
Basic differences between the conventional and aetherometric conceptions of the photon
1. On the nature of photons
1.1. Currently, it is held that solar radiation consists of photons. Implied in this is the notion that photons travel through space, like fibers of light, with analogy to ballistic models for the projection of material particles - as if the photons were hurled across space.
It is the view of aetherometric theory that solar radiation does not consist of photons, but of the
massfree electrical charges that compose the scalar electrical field [http://aetherometry.com/abs-AS2v2B.html#abstractAS2-17A]. Moreover, it is also the view of aetherometric theory that photons are 'punctual' and local productions, that they do not travel through space but rather occupy a globular space where they are created and extinguished.
1.2. If photons do not travel through space, what is it that travels through space and is the cause of the transmission of the light stimulus, and ultimately of any local production of photons?
Aetherometry contends that what travels through space and transmits the light impulse is electrical radiation composed of massfree charges and their associated longitudinal waves (the true phase waves), not electromagnetic radiation composed of photons and their transverse waves. The wave transmission of all electromagnetic signals depends on the transmission of nonelectromagnetic energy, specifically the transmission of electric massfree charges (the propagation of the field).
1.3. There are two types of photons: ionizing and nonionizing (blackbody). Aetherometry recognizes this accepted distinction, but suggests that it is a distinction still more profound than accepted physics itself holds, in that the two spectra are different as to the very conditions necessary for the production of one or the other type of photons. Specifically, Aetherometry claims that nonionizing or blackbody photons are locally generated whenever material particles that act as charge-carriers decelerate. Thus photons mark the trail of deceleration of massbound particles. This punctual generation of photons that marks the trails of decelerating massbound charges, combined with the decay in the kinetic energy of these charges, their release and scattered reabsorption by other adjacent massbound charges (thus causing so called conversion of electromagnetic energy into longer wavelength radiation), is what accounts for (1) the dispersion of energy through conversion into electromagnetic radiation (and Tesla's persistent claim that his power transmitters were
not transmitters of electromagnetic radiation) and for (2) the approximate suitability of the stochastic model for the dispersion of a ray and the scatter of light.
Conversely, material particles or massbound charges accelerate when an electrical, magnetic, or electrical-cum-magnetic field is applied to them. Aetherometry contends that, in nature, an applied field is composed of massfree electric radiation, the effect of the radiation of massfree charges being the acquisition of their energy by the massbound charges they encounter (
ergo the addition of a kinetic energy term to the energy associated with the rest mass of a material particle), and thus the acceleration of these massbound charges [http://aetherometry.com/abs-AS2v2B.html#abstractAS2-16]. In summary, Aetherometry claims that 'radiation' of massfree charges is responsible for the acceleration of massbound charges, whereas it is the
deceleration of the latter which converts the lost kinetic energy into a local generation of blackbody photons.
2. What are electromagnetic, and electric and magnetic waves?
2.1. Currently, it is held that photons constitute electromagnetic radiation having an electric field vector E and a transverse magnetic field vector H. Because solar radiation is believed to consist of photons, it is also said to be electrical, since photons have an electrical field.
Aetherometry argues that photons do indeed possess two transverse 'fields' or, more properly, waves or wave functions. It acknowledges that the two 'fields' have been assimilated to the concept of transverse electric and magnetic fields, from Faraday and Maxwell to present-day conceptions. However, it contends that these 'fields' are elements derived from defined wave functions, and that these wave functions only belong to charged particles, not to photons which, as particles of light, lack electrical charge. In fact, these authors propose that the fundamental relationship is that which de Broglie proposed as being needed to integrate quantum-mechanics with wave-mechanics:
E = m
0 c
2 = hυ
where m
0 denotes the inertial mass that one should associate with the photon when considered in its rest frame (ie the electromagnetic frame of reference). Note that for this relationship to hold, the photon
must have a very small but finite inertial or rest mass, as given by m
0, and
cannot therefore be classified as a massfree particle. Now, note that the function c
2 indicates the square superimposition of two waves having the same value. The question then becomes whether these electromagnetic waves are formed and described by electrical and magnetic field vectors. To answer it, we must look for an indication of comparable waves in the structure of material particles. Here, also, consideration of an electron, for example, in its rest frame, indicates that it has energy equal to
E = m
e c
2 = hυ
where the frequency υ is the Compton electron frequency. It would appear therefore that one would have to concur with the electromagnetic nature of matter. However, Aetherometry claims to have identified the fine structure of material particles such as the electron, and claims that this structure is not directly electromagnetic, even if it has an electromagnetic equivalence.
In fact, aetherometric theory claims that the relationship E = m
e c
2 = hυ, when considered as a physical reality, only applies to the maximal X-ray photon with the Compton-electron wavelength that can be extracted from the conversion of the rest energy of an electron into electromagnetic energy (ionizing photon). It describes solely the photon equivalence to the electron rest energy, and it constitutes, as is well known, the limit X-ray radiation obtainable from an electron. But it does
not describe the structure - the electrical structure - of that electron rest energy. That is something that only aetherometric theory claims to describe. The latter has, in fact, advanced the view that the structure of the electron is that of a torus composed by the superimposition of two electrical waves (one 'electrical', W
v, the other 'magnetic' W
k), where mass is equivalent solely to the multiple of the wavelength of one of these waves, or the number of these waves composing, as rings, the electron torus. Aetherometry has proposed exact values for these wave functions, which provide an alternative explanation for de Broglies theory of Matter Waves, and the phenomenology of mass-increase with acceleration that is central to the theory of special relativity.
The master equation that has been proposed is
E = λ
e W
k W
v
which is algebraically equivalent to the rest mass described by
λ
e c
2 = m
e c
2
where λ
e is the wavelength-equivalent of the rest mass of the ordinary electron (an exact quantity identified by experimental Aetherometry). Hence, Aetherometry has proposed the exact equivalence:
E = λ
e W
k W
v = λ
e c
2 = m
e c
2
Physically, this means that the structure of an electron is finite (has volume, temporal and undulatory characteristics), and that it is an electric structure. A short demonstration and formal proof of the assertion is that the same mass-energy can be written with reference to the elementary electrical charge q, as:
E = λ
e W
k W
v = q W
v
For inertial purposes, or with respect to the electromagnetic frame (or any such frame), this electrical structure is 'seen' as having the inertial property described by λ
e c
2 = m
e c
2. And likewise, whenever this rest energy is effectively transformed into an ionizing photon (by impact, to generate the limit X-ray, as in production of photoelectrons, or by pair-annihilation, to generate a gamma-ray), the electrical structure of that electron is dissolved, and its inertial or rest energy equivalent becomes effectively transformed into electromagnetic energy in conformity to the real conversion given by m
e c
2 = hυ. This also serves as a demonstration that
the 'rest' energy frame of a particle or a body is also its electromagnetic frame.
Furthermore, these new algebraic physical functions led aetherometric theory to claim that, likewise, the photon relation (E = m
0 c
2 = hυ) proposed by de Broglie has an equivalent that can be written as (E = λ
0 c
2 = hυ). This serves to highlight that, whereas the structure of electronic matter at a nanometric scale is electrical and forms a recognizable geometric object, a torus, the structure of a photon is what takes on the generic form of inertia, as per (λ
0 c
2 = hυ). Photons are the particles constituted by the structure c
2, not elements of matter or electrons. The latter are only perceived as having an equivalent wave structure c
2 when they are seized in their rest frame or their electromagnetic frame, or transformed into ionizing photons. But the structure of elements of matter while they remain such is electrical, described by the wave-product (W
k W
v), rather than c
2. Hence, Aetherometry contends, the finite geometry of photons is globular, forming a quasi-sphere, and composed of two identical waves, whereas the finite geometry of electrons is toroidal and composed of two different waves, one truly electrical and the other truly magnetic. Accordingly, the waves of photons are only geometric product equivalents of the real electric and magnetic waves which compose either the rest mass of a material particle, or its kinetic energy. Therefore Aetherometry argues that photons do indeed possess two transverse fields, but the two fields or their vectors are organized such as to describe a local globularizing vortex, each relating a sine wave, and each wave being described by c in the fundamental derived or resultant relationship (E = m
0 c
2 = hυ).
Accordingly, Aetherometry explicitly argues that photons do
not really have electrical or magnetic fields; this is in accordance with the fact that photons do not present electrical charge and that thus one does not mistake them for electrons! What possesses electrical and magnetic fields are charges, whether massfree or massbound. The latter, furthermore, possess such fields as are associated with their rest energy and also with the energy of their motion.
2.2. In accordance with the preceding, Aetherometry claims that solar radiation is electrical, not because it is composed of photons, but because it consists of propagating massfree charges. Unlike massbound charges, massfree charges have no fixed spin orientation with respect to forward propagation. They can be thought of as net spin 0 charges. But at any time, they may have an effective spin that is either -1/2 or +1/2 (actually, -1 and +1, as spin, in Aetherometry, is a number property of angular momentum, not of the number of 'hyperdimensions' attributed to states of polarization, as it is in Quantum Electrodynamics). They also have transverse, or near-transverse, electrical and magnetic fields, waves and field wave-vectors. But whereas the waves composing a photon are analogous to the transverse waves that propagate in water and limited to circularized motion, the waves composing a massfree charge are analogous to the longitudinal pressure waves responsible for the forward propagation of sound. Massfree charges cannot be described as occupying or forming a globular space, or even a toroidal one, but as occupying or forming a forward-moving cycloidal helix.
Both types of waves are involved in the propagation of the light stimulus and the generation of light: longitudinal electric waves with their transverse magnetic waves - in the propagation of the light-stimulus; and transverse vibrations in fragments of the kinetic energy released from massbound charges - ie, in the local production of blackbody photons. But these two sets of waves belong to two distinct physical objects - massfree charges and the photons formed when massbound charges decelerate.
2.3. Photons and massfree charges also differ in their physical effects. Photons are not deviated, displaced or disturbed by electrical or magnetic fields. Yet one can magnetically polarize the transmission of light. This is because the transmission of light is effectuated by massfree charges and their longitudinal waves, not by photons and their transversal vibrations. So-called plane polarization of light is, in effect, a magnetic filter, and the addition of a magnet and its rotation or movement will gate the wave function and twist of the longitudinal wave and massfree charge transmitting the light-stimulus.
Unlike massbound charges, photons cannot charge an electroscope. This is a well established fact, and it applies to both ionizing and blackbody photons. However, as discovered empirically by the Correas, if photons are nonionizing and with wavelengths greater than 300, they can arrest the spontaneous electroscopic discharge irrespective of polarity (please note blackbody photons with wavelengths less than 300 discharge electrosopes, as per the Hallwacks or photoelectric effect) [http://aetherometry.com/abs-AS2v2A.html#abstractAS2-08]. All blackbody photons trigger photoelectric cells [http://aetherometry.com/abs-AS2v2A.html#abstractAS2-13]. Photons are not detected by Tesla antennas (see Tesla, N (1901) Apparatus for the utilization of radiant energy, USPTO # 685,957) connected as unipolar inputs to Geiger-Muller circuits [http://aetherometry.com/abs-AS2v2A.html#abstractAS2-13].
As discovered by the Correas, massfree charges can positively charge a proximal electroscope by stripping valence electrons, but in general (in 'distal positions') they accelerate the spontaneous electroscopic discharge of negatively charged electroscopes, but not positively charged ones [http://aetherometry.com/abs-AS2v2A.html#abstractAS2-13]. Massfree charges do not trigger photoelectric cells. Massfree charges are easily detected by Tesla antennas connected as unipolar inputs to Geiger-Muller circuits.
3. Are photons massfree particles or massbound particles?
3.1. It is currently held that photons have zero rest mass, and thus that they are massfree.
Consensus on this matter is a controversial subject. Operationally, if photons have mass, it is so small that one 'feels permitted' to disregard it. But disregard is not proof of zero rest mass. And smallness is not a characteristic that impugns the physical properties of an object.
Moreover, de Broglie himself (so say the authorities A.P. French and E. F. Taylor) began by assuming that every particle of light, whatever its quantum energy, has a certain rest mass m
0 (An Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, p. 56). A.S. Goldhaber and M.M. Nieto placed strict upper limits on the rest mass of photons (Rev Mod Phys, 1971, 43:277), but there is no evidence that indicates that the rest mass of a photon is anything but zero.
Aetherometry contends that the relationship (m
0 c
2 = hυ) proposed by de Broglie, is a fictional relationship; that, effectively, the photon has no rest energy or mass-energy. But it also proposes that there is truth to the de Broglie relation, because the structure of the photon, being massfree, is what should be written as (λ
0 c
2 = hυ).
As a sidenote, Aetherometry does not need to take recourse to the notion that an alternative to General Relativity must invoke massbound photons subject to deviation by local gravitational fields. Since all blackbody photon production is local and the result of decelerating massbound charges, the scatter of the latter and its relative direction are sufficient to explain observed redshift distributions, as well as the much reviled or ignored distributions of blueshifts, without any need for an invocation of the bending of light by spacetime or its gravitational field.
3.2. Moreover, the Correas have publicly and explicitly contended that photons are not the only form of massfree radiation in nature. They have contended that photons do not constitute (directed) electrical radiation, but (scattered) electromagnetic radiation. Calling them radiation is already a sort of semantic freedom, since they arise and extinguish locally, and do not propagate across space - it is the scatter of that local production that spreads through space. That which radiates across space, is not electromagnetic energy, nor does it necessarily disperse or 'scatter'; what travels through space to transmit the light stimulus, and is a component of space itself, is electric longitudinal wave energy - the energy of undulatory massfree charges. And what travels across space and punctually produces photons are massbound charges that have absorbed the undulatory energy of massfree charges as their own kinetic energy, and thus underwent a 'field acceleration'. Light is the byproduct of the interaction between ambipolar radiation and massbound charges, a marker generated upon deceleration of these charges, when they scatter. Without the acceleration caused by the interaction of massfree and massbound charges, no blackbody photons can be produced by the scatter of massbound charges.
Other authors have spoken of a reality akin in some respects to the aetherometric claim of the existence of massfree (ambipolar) charges: Tesla spoke of 'nonordinary electricity', 'primary electricity', 'ether electricity', 'longitudinal electric waves distinct from electromagnetic radiation', manifestations that have fallen under the rubric of Tesla waves or Tesla radiation; Reich spoke of his massfree orgone energy and orgone charges; Cerenkov spoke of a pilot or phase wave that transmitted 'potential', or its 'envelope', at speeds greater than c, but did not transport electromagnetic energy; Maximo Aucci and Thomas Bearden have described massless electrons associated with longitudinal electric field propagation; Harold Aspden has described cosmological charges that escape the constraints of mass-based relativity, as elements of a dynamic Aether of space.
Aetherometric theory contends that the exact functions, formulas and spectrum which the Correas have discovered for Tesla radiation are the physical functions behind the transmission of the light stimulus, and are what all of the authors and researchers mentioned above have striven to understand and describe with new physical functions and models, whose shortcomings the aetherometric theory claims to overcome.
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