-- *Mar*Great question. Let's dive into it clearly and thoroughly: ------------------------------ 🔆 *How Are Photons Formed?*
Photons are *created whenever charged particles accelerate or transition between energy states*. They're not made of smaller parts — photons are *elementary particles*, and they’re the *quantum of light* and all other electromagnetic radiation. 🧪 *Common Ways Photons Are Formed:* ------------------------------ 🔹 1. *Electron Transitions in Atoms* (most common in everyday light) - When an electron in an atom *drops from a higher energy level to a lower one*, it *releases energy* in the form of a *photon*. Example: Hydrogen atom: Electron falls from n = 2 to n = 1 → emits photon (Lyman-alpha line) - The photon's *energy* = difference between the two energy levels: where is Planck’s constant, and is the frequency. ------------------------------ 🔹 2. *Charged Particles Accelerating* Any time a *charged particle* (like an electron) is *accelerated*, it emits radiation — i.e., *photons*. Examples: - *Radio antennas*: Accelerating electrons in the antenna produce *radio waves* (low-energy photons). - *Synchrotron radiation*: Electrons moving near the speed of light in magnetic fields emit *high-energy photons*. ------------------------------ 🔹 3. *Matter-Antimatter Annihilation* When a *particle* meets its *antiparticle*, they annihilate and create *photons*. Example: (Electron + Positron → Two gamma-ray photons) This is pure mass-energy conversion into photons via Einstein’s equation . ------------------------------ 🔹 4. *Blackbody Radiation (Thermal Emission)* Any object with temperature > 0 K emits photons. - Hotter objects emit *higher-energy* photons. - A red-hot stove emits *infrared and visible light* photons. - The Sun emits *a broad spectrum* of photons from visible to ultraviolet. This is due to the *random motion and acceleration of charged particles* (mostly electrons) inside the material. ------------------------------ 🔹 5. *Nuclear Reactions* In nuclear processes (like *fission*, *fusion*, or *radioactive decay*), *gamma-ray photons* are often emitted. Example: - After a nucleus decays into a lower-energy state, it emits a *gamma photon* to shed excess energy. ------------------------------ 🔹 6. *Quantum Field Fluctuations* In *quantum field theory (QFT)*, photons are *excitations of the electromagnetic field*. They’re created when a system interacts in a way that *perturbs the EM field*, causing a *quantized excitation* — a photon. This is the *most fundamental* explanation, though more abstract than classical pictures. ------------------------------ 🧠So... Where do they come from, really? Photons *aren’t built from anything smaller*. They: - *Emerge* from processes that involve *changes in energy of charged systems* - Are *conserved carriers* of energy, momentum, and angular momentum They’re the *"messengers"* or *"quanta"* of the electromagnetic force. ------------------------------ 🧠Related Thought (to your earlier question): If you're thinking of photons as *“effort packets”* — then when a system (like an atom or a particle) needs to *give off energy*, it "packages" that effort into a photon, which then travels at the speed of light. So in a poetic sense: Photons are the universe’s way of *exporting effort* (energy change) across space and time. ------------------------------ If you'd like, I can also explain how photons are absorbed, or how quantum electrodynamics (QED) models all of this. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHCJpSqBK6fS_DGUDFidooe%3Dw-hOHgOW9v30SvSsAZt%3D8uA%40mail.gmail.com.
