Evidence from the special relativity and blackbody radiation theories for the existence of photons possessing zero kinetic energy

Abstract

The traditional interpretation of radiative emission and absorption asserts that photons are created and annihilated in such processes. A Gedanken experiment is considered in which kinetic energy from observed photons is systematically removed until a limit of zero is reached. With the help of the relativistic Doppler effect it is shown that even for infinitesimally small kinetic energies the photons continue to exist, since in other inertial systems they will be observed to have a much higher energy/frequency falling in an easily detectable range. It is possible to formulate an alternative explanation for absorption and emission processes on this basis in terms of real photons with exactly zero kinetic energy being present before or after radiative interactions. Bolstering this hypothesis is the fact that the statistical mechanical treatment of photons interacting with oscillators in blackbody radiation theory predicts an infinite density of photons of this energy, both in the original Planck formulation employing Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics and in the subsequent Bose-Einstein description. These considerations demonstrate that the E = 0 state is greatly preferred as the product of absorption because of the requirement to have the interaction occur in a relatively narrow region of space-time. There is thus strong evidence that photons are not created and annihilated in radiative processes but simply have their kinetic energy changed either to or from a zero value. Accordingly a very high density of zero-energy photons is expected to exist uniformly throughout the universe. Finally, this development suggests that one should subject the creation-annihilation hypothesis to careful scrutiny in other areas of physics as well.

Exponentially damped Breit-Pauli Hamiltonian for the description of positronium decay and other high energy processes

“…In other words, the tightly bound e + estate lying 1.022 MeV lower in energy than the positronium 1s state could be identical with the photon itself ( Fig.1). Such an identification is also needed if the vacuum field of QED theory is to be associated with real zero-energy photons [6], since positron-electron pairs must be assumed to be formed from them in order to maintain the elemental balance required in the present interpretation.…”

“…Thus it is not possible to make the transition between the above two cases simply by changing the relative speed of the observer. As noted elsewhere [6], a massless photon corresponds to a null vector in Minkowski space [25], and as such is unchanged by any Lorentz transformation. At the same time, a photon with non-zero mass can have its energy changed to any conceivable positive value other than zero by virtue of such a transformation.…”

“…1). Such an identification is also needed if the vacuum field of QED theory is to be associated with real zero-energy photons [6], since positron-electron pairs must be assumed to be formed from them in order to maintain the elemental balance required in the present interpretation.…”

“…But if photons of infinitesimally small kinetic energy exist, it seems inconsistent to claim that those at the limit of exactly zero energy do not exist as well. Moreover, it is possible to associate the vacuum field of the theory of quantum electrodynamics with the existence of a uniformly high density of (real) zero-energy photons throughout the universe [6] rather than with the occurrence of creation-annhilation processes. In considering these aspects of photon theory, one should be aware of the fact that the Bohr frequency relation [5] indicates that a group of photons of exactly zero energy must have a null frequency and an infinitely long wavelength, thereby precluding their observation by spectroscopic means.…”

“…Recently [6], attention has been called to the fact that by virtue of the relativistic Doppler effect photons of arbitrarily small kinetic energy can have their frequency modified to experimentally detectable values by having the observer approach the source of the radiation at extremely high speeds. This analysis proves that annihilation does not occur for photons of such low energy.…”