Related papers: The conception of photons
There is a myth that Einstein's discovery of general relativity was due to his following beautiful mathematics to discover new insights about nature. I argue that this is an incorrect reading of the history and that what Einstein did was to…
In 1905, Einstein carried out his first derivation of the mass-energy equivalence by studying in different reference frames the energy balance of a body emitting electromagnetic radiation and assuming special relativity as a prerequisite.…
The photoelectric effect established by Einstein is well known, which indicates that electrons on lower energy levels can jump up to higher levels by absorbing photons, or jump down from higher levels to lower levels and give out…
Bose--Einstein condensation of a finite number of photons propagating inside a plasma-filled microcavity is investigated. The nonzero chemical potential is provided by the electrons, which induces a finite photon mass allowing condensation…
Year 2005 was the World Year of Physics, and it was commemorated worldwide as the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's legendary works in which the foundations of at least three areas of modern physics were laid: statistical mechanics,…
We recount the successful long career of classical physics, from Newton to Einstein, which was based on the philosophy of scientific realism. Special emphasis is given to the changing status and number of ontological entitities and…
The major conceptual difficulties of quantum mechanics are analyzed. They are: the notion "wave-particle", the probabilistic interpretation of the Schroedinger wave \psi-function and hence the probability amplitude and its phase, long-range…
Between 1905 and 1907, Einstein first tried to extend the special theory of relativity in such a way so as to explain gravitational phenomena. This was the most natural and simplest path to be taken. These investigations did not fit in with…
We explore the possibility to give a classical explanation to the specifics and physical sense of de Broglie matter waves when studying the microparticle as an object of non zero size, from the point of view of the special theory of…
Classically, electromagnetic pulses are described by real fields that couple to charged matter and propagate causally. We will show here that real fields of the form used in standard classical electromagnetic theory have a quantum…
At the beginning of the 20th century the classical electron theory (or, perhaps more appropriately, the classical electromagnetic mass theory) - the first physical theory that dared ask the question of what inertia and mass were - was…
The notion of intrinsic system of coordinates is introduced for the photon from the constraint of transversality condition. The degree of freedom to specify the intrinsic system is extracted from the same constraint, which turns out to be…
Planck introduced his famous units of mass, length and time a hundred years ago. The many interesting facets of the Planck mass and length are explored. The Planck mass ubiquitously occurs in astrophysics, cosmology, quantum gravity, string…
We explore the different meanings of "quantum uncertainty" contained in Heisenberg's seminal paper from 1927, and also some of the precise definitions that were explored later. We recount the controversy about "Anschaulichkeit",…
The concept of indistinguishable particles in quantum theory is fundamental to questions of ontology. All ordinary matter is made of electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons and they are all indistinguishable particles. Yet the concept…
In the context of our recently developed emergent quantum mechanics, and, in particular, based on an assumed sub-quantum thermodynamics, the necessity of energy quantization as originally postulated by Max Planck is explained by means of…
The physics that underpins modern technology is based on Einstein's theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. Most school students complete their compulsory science education without being taught any of these Einsteinian concepts. Only…
Current sky surveys have been conducted very accurately in order to understand our universe. One of the phenomena survey maps provide is gravitational effect. Albert Einstein (1936) first discussed the possibilities of gravitational lensing…
Due to the advent of Quantum Mechanics' 100th anniversary in 2025, we wrote this review paper in order to present a discussion that addresses the foundations of this theory. And since the creation of this Mechanics and other quantum…
Planck's constant was introduced as a fundamental scale in the early history of quantum mechanics. We find a modern approach where Planck's constant is absent: it is unobservable except as a constant of human convention. Despite long…