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As far as I can tell, this "buckshot theory of photons" is a heuristic that is never actually formalized or used in serious calculations. In actual quantum opti
by jwmerrill 11y ago
As far as I can tell, this "buckshot theory of photons" is a heuristic that is never actually formalized or used in serious calculations. In actual quantum optics calculations I have seen, a photon is a quantized excitation of a mode of an optical system, and it is definitely not localized to a moving point in space. There are "wave packets" that are somewhat localized in space and move together, but these are not the same as "photons".
- dr_zoidberg 11y agoThe wave packets interpretation reminds me of Schrödinger, but I don't remember exactly why it was dropped back in the day (circa 1940). Sorry I'm so sloppy on these topics, I never studied them formally ("mathematically" if you will -- think what I did more like a "history of quantum mechanics" course) and it's also been a long since last read about.