Cutting a photon in two creates an infinite swarm of particles

Comments

• Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  That’s gotta be a really sharp knife

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  • neopenguin@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Image

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  • Kenny2999@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    and really light

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    • LodeMike@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      No, thats the photon. The knife would have to be more solid

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• ByteJunk@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  This is a purely theoretical exercise, from what I could understand:

  [They] considered what would happen if a single photon passed through an optical shutter—essentially a very fast mirror that can be switched on and off to block part of a pulse of light. If the shutter was fast enough, it could intercept the photon mid-pulse, snipping off part of this extended wave.

  They then did a bunch of calculations to simulate what would happen, but I’m wondering if such a shutter wouldn’t have to travel at the speed of light to catch the photon, and if this doesn’t make the experiment meaningless…

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  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Sound like they are implying that photons can be collided and it creates a whole new set of particles.

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• rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  If you flipped a mirror back and forth fast enough to “split a photon” you’d end up generating a bunch of photons due to the heat energy generated by the system anyway. I’m sure that’s not what they’re talking about but just imagine something oscillating that quickly.

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• IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Is energy conserved in this scenario?

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