| MadSci Network: Physics |
These are really tough questions that I confess, I do not have the level of expertise needed to answer effectively. What I will say is that I have searched for any reference in the literature and the WWW that suggest the possibility of such phenomena, and I have found none. It seems to me that in order for photons to be compressed as we would think about a sound compression wave for example, that the photons within the "wave" would necessarily have to take on different quantum characteristics or localized properties. As this is strictly forbidden I see no way to describe a true photon compression wave using quantum mechanics or special relativity. Einstein's work showed that there must be an assumption that photons are rigorously identical and that it implied a "mysterious non-local interaction",[1][2] now understood as the requirement for a symmetric quantum mechanical state. The difference in local photon properties for compressed photon waves would necessarily render this assumption false. [1] Einstein, A. (1924). "Quantentheorie des einatomigen idealen Gases". Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin), Physikalisch-mathematische Klasse 1924: 261–267. (German) [2] Einstein, A. (1925). "Quantentheorie des einatomigen idealen Gases, Zweite Abhandlung". Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin), Physikalisch-mathematische Klasse 1925: 3–14.
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