From Paul G. Ellis
Andrea Taroni, while not denying the photon's existence, states: “the ‘central mystery’ of quantum theory… says that neither a wave nor a particle is a perfect way to think of a photon of light” (10 September, p 33). Indeed, it can be argued that the photon, too, is a particle that doesn't exist.
When we consider the energy and information transmitted by photons, with their zero rest mass, we observe only changes in the emitters and absorbers of whatever is transmitted. So any observable properties attributed to the photon, such as spin, should be traceable to the properties of the emitter and absorber themselves. Photons and light waves, are, I suggest, convenient mathematical fictions accounting for the relationship between emitter and absorber.
Chichester, West Sussex, UK
