Originally posted by Count Iblis II:
Johnny Boy defending the conventional scientific view? Wow, I'm impressed!
As shown in this article the experimental limits on the photon mass aren't as strong as previously thought. Thank you for the compliment. In my mind mass responds to inertia and also energy. So it has to be the potential energy of a stationary particle relative to its proper inertial reference frame. When solving the Schroedinger equation for a free electron it is assumed in textbooks that it has no potential energy. Delocalised waves are then generated that have to stretch over the whole universe requiring a special stationary inertial reference frame: this violates Einstein. A stationary free electron has mass-energy because its potential energy is that of the ground-state of a harmonic oscillator; i.e it experiences a stable minimum potential energy. Thus if I am correct that mass means stable equilibrium relative to the proper inertial reference frame of a particle, then a photon cannot have mass.
