A free electron cannot absorb a photon (derived using the law

>>8504995
>electomagnetic field
Am I being trolled?

>>8505097
Okay, put it this way: how can an electron be accelerated in an electromagnetic field.

>>8504995
*cannot absorb a photon forever

The electron eventually radiates and stops accelerating.

>>8504995
You better go read about Compton scattering and Thomson scattering. Either one is your answer.

>>8505199
Forever? No, it cannot absorb a photon. If it did even for a moment, it would violate the law of conservation of energy.

>>8505214
Not talking about scattering effects. I am talking about the case where no photon exists right after the original photon got absorbed.

>>8505175
Electron has a negative charge.
Charged particles in an electric field feel a force.
Force causes electron to accelerate (=move).

Electron will move away from negative charges and/or towards positive charge, until it (1) reaches equilibrium spacing with the positive and/or negative charges, or (2) the force is too small to accelerate electron against medium (very unlikely).

>>8505234
>No, it cannot absorb a photon.
Electron can absorb a photon and get excited to higher energy state (or ejected out of the molecule/atom). The photon ceases to exist in this energy exchange, and is generated again when the electron relaxes to lower energy state.

>>8505241
But the electron does interact with the electric field via photons.

>>8505250
I said free electron in unbounded space. I know that an electron can easily absorb a photon in a substance.

>>8505284
Photon is the force carrier for electromagnetism, all interactions involve it and all matter reacts with it.

Electron is a wave-particle, it can absorb a photon even when free, it will just change shape and momentum. It will (very likely) lose that absorbed energy as photon as soon as it interacts with another energy/matter.

>>8505312
>Electron is a wave-particle, it can absorb a photon even when free,

that's not really true. You can find the derivation that proves otherwise with one google search. You can basically show that the velocity of the electron after it absorbed a photon has to exceed c, which is impossible.

>>8504995
>electrons cant absorb energy
end yourself

>>8505331
In it's rest frame it's stationary so when absorbing a photon it's mass increases.

From other reference frames why would it exceed c wouldn't it work like a classical particle gaining energy (in a relativistic way)?

>>8505351
*sighs* FREE electrons cannot absorb photons. If you haven't seen the derivation I suggest you google it instead of being ignorant.

>>8505234
>Forever? No, it cannot absorb a photon. If it did even for a moment, it would violate the law of conservation of energy.

Classically, yes, but you're implying quantized fields (photons, electrons), where the uncertainty principle applies.

>>8505360
For a lay summary

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Quantum/virtual_particles.html

>We are really using the quantum-mechanical approximation method known as perturbation theory. In perturbation theory, systems can go through intermediate "virtual states" that normally have energies different from that of the initial and final states. This is because of another uncertainty principle, which relates time and energy.

>In the pictured example, we consider an intermediate state with a virtual photon in it. It isn't classically possible for a charged particle to just emit a photon and remain unchanged (except for recoil) itself. The state with the photon in it has too much energy, assuming conservation of momentum. However, since the intermediate state lasts only a short time, the state's energy becomes uncertain, and it can actually have the same energy as the initial and final states. This allows the system to pass through this state with some probability without violating energy conservation.

>Some descriptions of this phenomenon instead say that the energy of the system becomes uncertain for a short period of time, that energy is somehow "borrowed" for a brief interval. This is just another way of talking about the same mathematics. However, it obscures the fact that all this talk of virtual states is just an approximation to quantum mechanics, in which energy is conserved at all times. The way I've described it also corresponds to the usual way of talking about Feynman diagrams, in which energy is conserved, but virtual particles can carry amounts of energy not normally allowed by the laws of motion.

Clearly some sort of dark electron photon hybrid is at work here.