Photon: history, mass, charge
Abstract
The talk consists of three parts. ``History'' briefly describes the emergence and evolution of the concept of photon during the first two decades of the 20th century. ``Mass'' gives a short review of the literature on the upper limit of the photon's mass. ``Charge'' is a critical discussion of the existing interpretation of searches for photon charge. Schemes, in which all photons are charged, are grossly inconsistent. A model with three kinds of photons (positive, negative and neutral) seems at first sight to be more consistent, but turns out to have its own serious problems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0602036,
title = {Photon: history, mass, charge},
author = {L. B. Okun},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0602036},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
8 pages, Presented at the International Conference on the Structure and Interactions of the Photon ``Photon 2005: its first hundred years and the future'', Warsaw University, 31.08.--04.09.2005