Binding photons together slows them down and gives them mass.

a reply to: AMPTAH

Light is the square root of energy over mass.
So yes Photons must have mass! They may have zero 'rest' mass but they are not at rest either.

As strange as it sounds our math shows this must be somehow true:

E = mc^2

Or if we rearrange the equation,

c^2=e/m
or
c=√e/m

I think a photons mass is probably inversely proportional to it's wavelength, but I'll need to look that up.

How could a star bend a light wave if it didn't have mass? How could a black hole suck light in?

Also, keep in mind that virtually all matter is essentially condensed light
c=√e/m

a reply to: muzzleflash

Nicely put.
Has anyone seen the paper? Got to the MIT website and read a more in depth story but no link to it.
If it its true then I wonder just how much it can be entangled.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

The concept that all matter is condensed light (E=mc^2) is the entire basis of the "the universe is a matrix" theory.

Therefore all physical materials are Holographic representations.

a reply to: Funem

I would very much like to read the paper.

I think this might be a "Bose–Einstein condensate" aka 5th state of matter experiment but I'm not sure yet. I'd like to know more.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Thanks for the explanation. Condensed light makes sense.

If you do want to look at the paper then here's the link. FYI looks like you need to be a scientist and log in. Or pay to look at it.

science.sciencemag.org...

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

If the cooled rubidium cluster is able to sustain itself enough to slow down massless photons and appears to attach to them something that slows the photons down during entry process and after exit preventing the light particles from regaining light speeds upon exit and causing a triplet group of photons to form, it does appear to have BEC qualities.
As far as being a lighter then gas like medium remaining stable at ultra low temperatures...

a reply to: BASSPLYR
Basically what i take from this is they are quantumly (I just invented that word) entangling three (3) photons.
That is impressive in and of itself. As for the 3-photon entanglement having mass I find that hard to believe.

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13
They are no longer photons then.

You can in turn build matter with photons within this medium possibly.

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

Thanks. That's what I was thinking too, but I don't know too much about condensates. Somehow the subject just keeps popping up lately.

a reply to: muzzleflash
don't forget the momentum component to that equation.
E=MC2 is not the full equation.

a reply to: Deluxe

E^2 = p^2c^2 + m^2rest c^4 ?

a reply to: muzzleflash
yes thank you

a reply to: Deluxe

Thank you, I'm glad you referenced that.

Using E = mc^2 to base an energy ,mass equivalence upon is ambiguous therefore mass here is relativistic mass. The correction -

E = m c^2 / sqrt( 1 – v^2/c^2)

a reply to: BotheLumberJack
yeah so according to that equation which i don't disagree with. If you were to travel the speed of light your energy would be infinite.
Or to be exact "undefined" since we can't divide by zero.

What is "mass"?

Mass is both a property of a physical bodyand a measure of its resistance to acceleration (a change in its state of motion) when a net force is applied.[1] It also determines the strength of its mutual gravitational attraction to other bodies.

any stationary body having mass has an equivalent amount of energy, and all forms of energy resist acceleration by a force and have gravitational attraction. In modern physics, matter is not a fundamental concept because its definition has proven elusive.

The mass of an object determines its acceleration in the presence of an applied force.

A body's mass also determines the degree to which it generates or is affected by a gravitational field.
 

Gonna make another post, one sec...

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: burgerbuddy

That's my assumption, but I also don't believe photons are really "massless", but have a ground state non-zero mass that we can't measure yet.

Yes that would seem to be the case.

But if they can add mass to photons, how long would it be before the black hole weapons are created?

a reply to: burgerbuddy

When I die, I hope it's because of a black hole bomb, or something cool like that.