In reply to Jürg Wyttenbach's message of Thu, 14 May 2020 01:23:28 +0200: Hi, [snip] >AFAIK the spin angular momentum of a photon is h-bar. > > >This is highly unlikely as in this case all photons should have the same >angular momentum.
They do. (At least intrinsic angular momentum. Of course they can also have angular momentum relative to any point in space that depends on their position and direction of travel.) >The real question is: Is the total mass of a photon just its angular >momentum? Mass and angular momentum have different dimensions. I.e. it's like comparing apples and oranges. They are simply not the same thing. > >All EM mass needs a topological charge to constantly reproduce the >magnetic flux. The movement of a magnetic flux line is strictly angular. >Thus the only question is: How much energy is stored in the local field >of the photon? Classically people believe H/E components of a photon are >of equal size because they think that the energy oscillates between >electric and magnetic energy what simply is nonsensical. This picture >only works for a resonant electric circuit where a coil (solenoid) can >store a current and at the maximum point the potential disappears. I think you are talking about a tank circuit in which a coil and capacitor are coupled, such that energy is exchanged between coil and capacitor. Stored in the magnetic field in the coil and the electric field in the capacitor. >The vacuum is not a solenoid...and a magnetic field is only produced by a >moving charge what implies the charge must split and you would have to >explain which force should bend it back again. If you accept that photons have an electric field, then you are talking about split charges. What brings them back together is the attraction of + to -. In the classical sense, a photon is a tank circuit, with the changing electric field creating a magnetic field, and the changing magnetic field creating an electric field. At one extreme in the oscillation, all the energy is stored in the electric field, and at the other extreme, all the energy is stored in the magnetic field. When all the energy is stored in the magnetic field, the charges are no longer separate and cease to move, hence the magnetic field starts to collapse. It is the collapse of the magnetic field that drives the charges apart again, storing energy in the electric field. The total energy remains constant. Though I must admit that I find this difficult to reconcile with a rotating photon. However I have long suspected that we may need to dump the concept of electric and magnetic fields altogether, and replace them with a new pair of concepts. This is why I think you might be on the right track. We could be looking at a rotation into a fourth dimension, such that the electric and magnetic fields we see/use/imagine, are really just three dimensional projections of what's really happening.
