sci.physics.electromag

On Oct 24, 4:24 am, turtle wrote:
> RP wrote:
> > On Oct 23, 3:42 pm, turtle wrote:
> > > Apparently since no one in the group has come up with the wavelength
> > > or energy level of a virtual photon, I must assume that the concept is
> > > highly theoretical.

> My next question would be----what is the virtual wavelength and
> virtual energy of a virtual photon?
>
> turtle
Physical quantities don't depend on the energy of any one virtual
photon, but have to be calculated using an integral over the virtual
photon energy.
There is a statistical distribution of virtual energies,
characterized by a mathematical function called the propagator, or
Green's function. The virtual energy becomes an integration variable
when calculating the cross-matrix.
I think another way to look at it is that there is an uncertainty
in the number of virtual photons. The energies of all the photons have
to add up to the difference in energy between the initial and final
states, but there can be any number of virtual photons from 1 to
infinity. Therefore, the energy of each virtual photon is uncertain.
I think of it this way. Virtual photons are an artifact of forcing
a particle picture on a system which is mostly wave-like (or field-
like).