Are photons necessarily massless?

v. 6 n. 11

The title question seems to be a fine point, hardly worth the trouble. But it is near the questions of the structure and finite permeability/permittivity of space and a rationale for causality. It is by and large assumed that the speed of information transfer (causality) and the speed of light are identical. Special relativity indicates that particles with any mass cannot achieve light speed, c, because infinite energy would be required. But no experiment has actually proved that the speed of light is equal to the speed of causality. Causality has been discussed. [1] A point is the speed of causality should be c in the special relativity equations, but it is not known experimentally (physically instead of hypothetically) that light speed is not less than c, or that light has a small but finite mass. The speed of causality and speed of light should be decoupled in this way until physically proven otherwise. The symbol c in relativity and the rest of physics should be primarily associated with causality, and secondarily with electromagnetism (see cover image; there may or may not be a difference in vector magnitudes).

In a related matter, why isn't the speed of light or causality infinite? The conventional answer is that space has finite values for permeability (mu-zero) and permittivity (epsilon-zero), which are the resistance of magnetic and electric fields respectively to electromagnetic radiation moving through the vacuum of space. But then the question, why does space have such resistance in the first place? Giving labels to fundamental unknowns does not necessarily provide physical understanding; this goes to the structure of space itself, i.e., is space continuous or granular, why is dark energy associated with space, what is the nature of dark energy anyway, ...?"

About photons having a finite mass. It has been discussed that a photon might not be an independent particle that moves through space, rather, a transfer of energy by means of virtual photons in the quantum vacuum. [2][3] The initial photon is not the same entity that is recorded at the final destination; causality (and the finite speed of light) might be explained in this way because each energy transfer requires a finite time; the energy pulse must wait for an adjacent virtual photon of sufficient lifetime to come into existence to transfer the necessary energy temporarily to this virtual photon (making it measurable and real for an instant).

"In this view there is "latent light" among the sparse matter distributed in space. If there was no matter there would still be latent light. This latent light is the proposed virtual photons in the quantum vacuum at minimum energy, the zero-point energy, according to the uncertainty principle. It is not necessary to have matter like stars to have a light support network of virtual photons in this view. It is everywhere in space, waiting for a star to shine so that it may transmit the star's radiance, so to speak. Perhaps this is why light does not seem to "get tired" with time or distance. It might be "digital," passing energy from virtual photon to virtual photon completely with each transfer (conventionally, absorption--re-radiance). Such a "blanket of latent light" among the matter in space would have mass, as the quantum vacuum has mass, as matter has mass -- a similarity between light and matter." [3]

Even though the mass of a virtual photon is immeasurable, it is nonetheless real, as real as the uncertainty principle that describes the quantum vacuum. Such virtual photons do not move through space, rather into and out of space, and are "stationary" with regard to the direction of motion of the energy pulse being transferred by such virtual photons. Such an entity might then be said to have a "rest mass" of

mc^2 = hv

m ? hv/c^2 ........................................... (1)

where v can be the frequency of the virtual photon, or the momentary higher frequency of the real photon temporarily hosting the energy pulse. In either case there is no particle moving through space; virtual photons in a network are relaying energy from one to another in this thesis, as electric current is relayed by free electrons in conductive wires. The movement of the individual electron hosting the energy pulse is marginal.

This may be testable, in that the "rest mass" of such a proposed photon depends on the frequency in Equation (1). Any gravitational lensing test not accounting for this frequency would invalidate any Newtonian result. [4][5]

If photons are a process in a preset network of virtual photons and not individual particles of zero mass that move through space, they may have finite mass and move at less than the speed of causality. Formally decoupling causality and light speed could be useful in encouraging experiments to note any difference to possibly add to the understanding of space itself, i.e., what lies behind the permeability and permittivity of space, or the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. [6]

Arvin Ash video: Why No One Knows If Photons Really Are Massless: What if they Aren't? (youtube.com)

[1] (1) Restoring locality and causality (booklet) | LinkedIn

[2] 2) Is light a wave, particle or something else? | LinkedIn

[3] What is behind light and matter and the small value of Planck's constant? | LinkedIn

[4] If light has no mass, why is it affected by gravity (discounting the equivalence principle)? * | LinkedIn

[5] Experiment to affirm the transport of light by virtual photons | LinkedIn

[6] Suggested experiments in quantum mechanics to possibly distinguish among interpretations | LinkedIn