The Photon
| Scientific Paper | |
|---|---|
| Title | The Photon |
| Author(s) | D E McLennan |
| Keywords | photon, fine structure constant, photon angular momentum, photon charge density, Planck's constant |
| Published | 1989 |
| Journal | Physics Essays |
| Volume | 2 |
| Number | 1 |
| Pages | 51-54 |
Abstract
It is proposed here that the photon is a dipole comprised of two fundamental charges separated by the distance of <img border="0" alt="alpha" align="bottom" src="http://physicsessays.aip.org/stockgif3/agr.gif" /><img border="0" alt="lambda" align="bottom" src="http://physicsessays.aip.org/stockgif3/lgr.gif" />/<img border="0" alt="pi" align="bottom" src="http://physicsessays.aip.org/stockgif3/pgr.gif" />, rotating in a plane transverse to its direction of travel. The Maxwell waves traditionally used to describe electromagnetic radiation must be in equilibrium with the dipole photon. Thus they are circularly polarized. It is shown here that the photon travels at a speed u < c, and the connection between the two speeds is represented by the fine structure constant. After discussion of the conditions that a wave solution must satisfy, we find emerging the beginnings of a theory of charge.
