Quantum Mechanics 8 - What is a Photon?

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:08080083,
            doi = {},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/08080083},
            author = {Epp, Richard},
            keywords = {},
            language = {en},
            title = {Quantum Mechanics 8 - What is a Photon? },
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2008},
            month = {aug},
            note = {PIRSA:08080083 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }
          

Abstract

By applying our understanding of the quantum harmonic oscillator to the electromagnetic field we learn what a photon is, and are introduced to “quantum field theory” and the amazing “Casimir effect.”
Learning Outcomes:
• Understanding that classical electromagnetic waves bouncing around inside a mirrored box will exist as standing waves with only certain allowed frequencies.
• How each of these standing waves oscillates harmonically, and thus why – at the quantum level – their energies must be discrete, which is interpreted as the presence of a discrete number of photons.
• What the zero point energy of the electromagnetic field represents, and its relationship to a remarkable property of the quantum vacuum called the “Casimir effect.”