Why don't photons collide with each other
And if they do why can't we see light the n
Why don't photons collide with each other
And if they do why can't we see light the n
Photons don't directly interact with each other, but if one photon pair produced an e+/e- then the second photon could interact with that pair.
The interaction has to conserve the energy of the two photons and conserve their momentum as well of course.
But yes they could (and most probably depending on their energy) just pass right "through" each other
, low energy visible light photons do not collide and just pass right past each other. So if you take two laser beams and shine them at each other at a small angle, they will mostly just pass by each other - it would only be a very rare pair of photons that would scatter out of their respective beam directions. If, on the other hand, the scattering probability were high, you would see a bright spot where the two beams cross. Since no such spot is seen (at least with the naked eye), the probability must be small.
because
in order for two photons to collide and produce an electron-positron pair, the incident photons need an initial energy of more than 1 MeV - that is 1,000,000 eV whereas ordinary photons of visible light only have an energy of 1-2 eV range.
Photons don't directly interact with each other, but if one photon pair produced an e+/e- then the second photon could interact with that pair.
The interaction has to conserve the energy of the two photons and conserve their momentum as well of course.
But yes they could (and most probably depending on their energy) just pass right "through" each other
, low energy visible light photons do not collide and just pass right past each other. So if you take two laser beams and shine them at each other at a small angle, they will mostly just pass by each other - it would only be a very rare pair of photons that would scatter out of their respective beam directions. If, on the other hand, the scattering probability were high, you would see a bright spot where the two beams cross. Since no such spot is seen (at least with the naked eye), the probability must be small.
because
in order for two photons to collide and produce an electron-positron pair, the incident photons need an initial energy of more than 1 MeV - that is 1,000,000 eV whereas ordinary photons of visible light only have an energy of 1-2 eV range.
