Physics without Photons

Kurt Just

T. Kaur, D. G. Blair, John Moschilla +1 more

Abstract The Einstein-First project approaches the teaching of Einsteinian physics through the use of physical models and analogies. This paper presents an approach to the teaching of quantum physics which begins by emphasising the particle-nature of light through the use of toy projectiles to represent photons. This allows key concepts including the spacing between photons, and photon momentum to be introduced. This in-turn allows an intuitive understanding of the uncertainty principle. We present optical interference in the context of individual photons, using actual videos showing the development of images one at a time. This enables simple laser interference experiments to be interpreted through the statistical arrival of photons. The wave aspects of quantum phenomenon are interpreted in terms of the wavelike nature of the arrival probabilities.

I. K. Karpenko

Darren Cudd

This paper examines whether the photon constitutes an independent physically enforcing mechanism or whether it functions solely as a descriptive classification of electromagnetic interaction. Using a mechanism-only admissibility criterion and elimination by necessity, the analysis removes the photon attribution while retaining all physically enforcing processes—energy transfer, momentum exchange, locality, and reciprocal back-reaction—and tests for invariance of physical evolution. Because electromagnetic interactions remain fully intact under removal, the paper demonstrates that the photon does not independently enforce physical change and therefore does not qualify as a fundamental physical enforcer under strict enforcement-based realism.

O. M. MELLO

Aku Pajula, Maija Nousiainen, Ismo T. Koponen

Abstract Physics education research has revealed that students have multiple ways of understanding the concept of the photon and that students’ use of it is often incoherent and incomplete. In this study, we explore what kinds of statements pre-service physics teachers and university physics students choose on a multiple-choice questionnaire, designed to reveal students’ stances on three conceptual views of the photon (quantum state, quantum realistic, and naïve dualistic) in the context of quantum optical experiments. The questionnaire was conducted in a pre-post manner. The test group (pre-service physics teachers N = 13) attended an introductory quantum physics course which emphasised coherent use of natural language, and the control group (university physics students pre N = 33, post N = 25) attended a standard introductory course in quantum physics. Pre-test results show that both groups expressed incoherent use of the concept of the photon. The post-test results reveal that after teaching intervention, the test group showed significant improvement in the coherent use of the concept of the photon as a quantum state. The post-test results of the control group remained incoherent. The results show that paying attention to the coherent use of natural language in teaching quantum physics helps pre-service physics teachers to recognise and choose coherent expressions about the photon.