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Finding the Photon Mass from Maxwell's Equations and Compton Scattering Theory

Received: 10 March 2021     Accepted: 26 June 2021     Published: 6 July 2021
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Abstract

The question of whether particles of light have mass has been asked in natural philosophy for centuries, starting with theories such as the corpuscular theory of Newton and contemporaries, based in turn on older ideas back to classical times. In the early twentieth century, Planck and Einstein introduced the concept of the photon, the quantum of light energy. It was proposed by Einstein and others, notably in about 1906, that the photon has mass. The behavior of a photon is strange. The aim of this work is to attempt to theoretically investigate the rest mass of a photon from Maxwell’s equation and Compton scattering theory. In this paper the equation of the electric field intensity in the presence of polarization in vacuum is derived. Maxwell's equations can describe state of electromagnetic waves in any medium. Their physical content is familiar; these equations are derived from the laws of electricity and magnetism. According to electromagnetic theory, the rest mass of photon in free space is zero and also photon has non-zero rest mass, as well as wavelength-dependent. To apply Maxwell's equations and Compton scattering theory this is modified to find the photon rest mass is of the order ~10-49 g which is comparable to that obtained by Coulomb experiment which is of the order ~10-44 g. Our theoretical work on the speculative mass of the photon must be experimentally verified and may open up plausible new applications in different fields.

Published in American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications (Volume 9, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12
Page(s) 7-12
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Maxwell's Equations, Polarization, Photon Mass

References
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[2] Michael R. Koblischka, Sugali Pavan Kumar Naik, Anjela Koblischka-Veneva, Masato Murakami, Denis Gokhfeld, Eddula Sudhakar Reddy, Georg J. Schmitz. 13 March 2019, Superconducting YBCO Foams as Trapped Field Magnets. Materials 2019, 12, 853. Doi: 10.3390/ma12060853.
[3] K. S. Martirosyan, E. Galstyan, Y. Y. Xue, D. Luss. 19 March 2008. The fabrication of YBCO superconductor polycrystalline powder by CCSO. Supercond. Sci. Technol. 21 (2008) 065008 (5pp). doi: 10.1088/0953-2048/21/6/065008.
[4] Grado-Caffaro M, Grado-Caffaro M. 2013, Photon rest-mass and velocity versus wave-length. Optik; 124 (16): 2549–50.
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[14] R. Aima, S. A. Halim, S. K. Chen, M. M. Awang Kechik. 2018. The Effect of Sm2O3 Nanoparticle Inclusion on Superconducting Properties of YBCO Ceramics. ASM Sci. J. Special Issue 2018 (1) AiMS2018, 8-16.
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  • APA Style

    Amna Al Ata Ahmed Salih, Abdelnabi Ali Elamin, Ali Sulaiman Mohamed, Nafisa Bader Eldeen. (2021). Finding the Photon Mass from Maxwell's Equations and Compton Scattering Theory. American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications, 9(1), 7-12. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12

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    ACS Style

    Amna Al Ata Ahmed Salih; Abdelnabi Ali Elamin; Ali Sulaiman Mohamed; Nafisa Bader Eldeen. Finding the Photon Mass from Maxwell's Equations and Compton Scattering Theory. Am. J. Electromagn. Appl. 2021, 9(1), 7-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12

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    AMA Style

    Amna Al Ata Ahmed Salih, Abdelnabi Ali Elamin, Ali Sulaiman Mohamed, Nafisa Bader Eldeen. Finding the Photon Mass from Maxwell's Equations and Compton Scattering Theory. Am J Electromagn Appl. 2021;9(1):7-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12,
      author = {Amna Al Ata Ahmed Salih and Abdelnabi Ali Elamin and Ali Sulaiman Mohamed and Nafisa Bader Eldeen},
      title = {Finding the Photon Mass from Maxwell's Equations and Compton Scattering Theory},
      journal = {American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications},
      volume = {9},
      number = {1},
      pages = {7-12},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajea.20210901.12},
      abstract = {The question of whether particles of light have mass has been asked in natural philosophy for centuries, starting with theories such as the corpuscular theory of Newton and contemporaries, based in turn on older ideas back to classical times. In the early twentieth century, Planck and Einstein introduced the concept of the photon, the quantum of light energy. It was proposed by Einstein and others, notably in about 1906, that the photon has mass. The behavior of a photon is strange. The aim of this work is to attempt to theoretically investigate the rest mass of a photon from Maxwell’s equation and Compton scattering theory. In this paper the equation of the electric field intensity in the presence of polarization in vacuum is derived. Maxwell's equations can describe state of electromagnetic waves in any medium. Their physical content is familiar; these equations are derived from the laws of electricity and magnetism. According to electromagnetic theory, the rest mass of photon in free space is zero and also photon has non-zero rest mass, as well as wavelength-dependent. To apply Maxwell's equations and Compton scattering theory this is modified to find the photon rest mass is of the order ~10-49 g which is comparable to that obtained by Coulomb experiment which is of the order ~10-44 g. Our theoretical work on the speculative mass of the photon must be experimentally verified and may open up plausible new applications in different fields.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Finding the Photon Mass from Maxwell's Equations and Compton Scattering Theory
    AU  - Amna Al Ata Ahmed Salih
    AU  - Abdelnabi Ali Elamin
    AU  - Ali Sulaiman Mohamed
    AU  - Nafisa Bader Eldeen
    Y1  - 2021/07/06
    PY  - 2021
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12
    T2  - American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications
    JF  - American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications
    JO  - American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications
    SP  - 7
    EP  - 12
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2376-5984
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajea.20210901.12
    AB  - The question of whether particles of light have mass has been asked in natural philosophy for centuries, starting with theories such as the corpuscular theory of Newton and contemporaries, based in turn on older ideas back to classical times. In the early twentieth century, Planck and Einstein introduced the concept of the photon, the quantum of light energy. It was proposed by Einstein and others, notably in about 1906, that the photon has mass. The behavior of a photon is strange. The aim of this work is to attempt to theoretically investigate the rest mass of a photon from Maxwell’s equation and Compton scattering theory. In this paper the equation of the electric field intensity in the presence of polarization in vacuum is derived. Maxwell's equations can describe state of electromagnetic waves in any medium. Their physical content is familiar; these equations are derived from the laws of electricity and magnetism. According to electromagnetic theory, the rest mass of photon in free space is zero and also photon has non-zero rest mass, as well as wavelength-dependent. To apply Maxwell's equations and Compton scattering theory this is modified to find the photon rest mass is of the order ~10-49 g which is comparable to that obtained by Coulomb experiment which is of the order ~10-44 g. Our theoretical work on the speculative mass of the photon must be experimentally verified and may open up plausible new applications in different fields.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Physics Department, College of Science, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan

  • Physics Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, Omdurman Islamic University, Omdurman, Sudan

  • Physics Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, Omdurman Islamic University, Omdurman, Sudan

  • Physics Department, College of Science, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan

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