1

From the title of the question You may presume what I am asking. Is there a way to get around that.For example photons from hubble deep field have travelled 13 billion light years and we still see a picture as it was 1m from us. Can something very dense vibrate and transmit the vibrations at the speed of light and photons are just these vibrations. Do conclusions from Michelson-Morley experiment predict with certainty there is no any possibility for a conductor of waves (EM and gravitational)?

Krešimir Bradvica
  • 2,219
  • Astronomers who observe in x-rays and gamma-rays routinely observe handfuls of photons separated by gaps in time, even when they're all coming from a single, steadily emitting source. – kleingordon Feb 21 '20 at 18:58
  • What did you read that made you think there aren’t gaps? – G. Smith Feb 21 '20 at 18:59
  • @SolomonSlow For me is fascinating that a galaxy can emit photons that have 0,0000000.....01° difference in angle while detected on Earth. – Krešimir Bradvica Feb 21 '20 at 19:00
  • @G.Smith I can't believe how small difference in angle can be between emitted photons. – Krešimir Bradvica Feb 21 '20 at 19:04
  • OK, but that has nothing to do with your question, which is about gaps. – G. Smith Feb 21 '20 at 19:06
  • @G.Smith If You throw seeds on the soil there are points on that soil with no seeds which increase with distance. This points can be thought of as gaps, but with photons this doesn't happen. Immagine throw 2 seeds and after 10 meters they are close to each other 1mm, for me this is hard to understand unless you think about some lattice which elements can be very close when influenced by vibration spreading. – Krešimir Bradvica Feb 21 '20 at 21:01
  • Sorry, I can’t follow your thinking. One problem seems to be language difficulties. Are you using translation software? – G. Smith Feb 21 '20 at 21:34
  • Does this answer your question? As light from a star spreads out and weakens, do gaps form between the photons? and https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/532347/if-photons-are-particles-why-gaps-dont-form-between-radially-emitted-photons-ev?noredirect=1&lq=1 and https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/59945/are-there-gaps-in-light-or-will-it-hit-everywhere?rq=1 – ProfRob Feb 21 '20 at 22:39

1 Answers1

3

There are gaps, and you don’t need astronomical distances. At low intensity you can detect one photon at a time with a photodetector. You can count them! You can study the statistics of the photons!

We detect both EM and gravitational waves. The “conductor” is the electromagnetic or the metric field, which is “waving”. Neither field is made of matter, and there is no reason they should be. Simply because one’s first introduction to waves is sound, ocean waves, violin strings, etc. does not mean that all waves have to be in matter.

G. Smith
  • 51,534