photon
Sign in to saveA photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can only move at one speed, the speed of light measured in a vacuum. The photon belongs to the class of boson particles.
AI overview
A photon is the smallest unit of light and other electromagnetic radiation, and it's the particle that carries the electromagnetic force. Photons have no mass and always travel at the speed of light, making them fundamental to how we see the world and how electromagnetic forces work.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Particle.name
- Photon
- Particle.composition
- Elementary particle
- Particle.statistics
- Bose–Einstein statistics
- Particle.group
- Gauge boson
- Particle.interaction
- Electromagnetic, gravity
- Particle.theorized
- Albert Einstein (1905) The name "photon" is generally attributed to Gilbert N. Lewis (1926)
- Particle.mean_lifetime
- Stable
- Particle.electric_charge
- 0
- Particle.color_charge
- No
- Particle.spin
- 1 ħ
- Particle.num_spin_states
- +1 ħ, −1 ħ
- Particle.parity
- −1
Article
23 sectionsContents
- Physical properties
- Energy and momentum
- Polarization and spin angular momentum
- Antiparticle annihilation
- Experimental checks on photon mass
- Historical development
- Nomenclature
- Wave–particle duality and uncertainty principles
- Bose–Einstein model of a photon gas
- Stimulated and spontaneous emission
- Quantum field theory
- Quantization of the electromagnetic field
- As a gauge boson
- Hadronic properties
- Contributions to the mass of a system
- In matter
- Technological applications
- Quantum optics and computation
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can only move at one speed, the speed of light measured in a vacuum. The photon belongs to the class of boson particles.
As with other elementary particles, photons are best explained by quantum mechanics and exhibit wave–particle duality, their behavior featuring properties of both waves and particles. The modern photon concept originated during the first two decades of the 20th century with the work of Albert Einstein, who built upon the research of Max Planck. While Planck was trying to explain how matter and electromagnetic radiation could be in thermal equilibrium with one another, he proposed that the energy stored within a material object should be regarded as composed of an integer number of discrete, equal-sized parts. To explain the photoelectric effect, Einstein introduced the idea that light itself is made of discrete units of energy. In 1926, Gilbert N. Lewis popularized the term photon for these energy units. Subsequently, many other experiments validated Einstein's approach.