The main wave packet of the single photon travels no faster than the speed of light in vacuum in any dispersive medium, and can be delayed up to 500 nanoseconds in a slow light medium.

When two atoms exchange their different photon energies, the resulting wave packet (an atom’s wave distribution) in superposition forms a momentum graph known as a density grating, ...

H. Yan et al. Experimental observation of simultaneous wave and particle behavior in a narrowband single-photon wave packet. Physical Review A . Vol. 91, April 2015, p. 042132. doi: 10.1103 ...

The wave is, in fact, a packet of purest energy. This is the way energy is exchanged in the electromagnetic field. Quantum theory advises, however, that waves and particles are not distinct things.

When a single photon encounters a barrier with two thin openings, it produces an interference pattern on a screen placed behind the openings – but only if the photon’s path is not observed. This ...

This is true for all waves, whether they’re light waves, water waves, or sound waves. But light isn’t just a wave—it’s also a particle called a photon . So what happens if you shoot a ...

The team used an interferometer to split a photon wave function down two possible paths before meeting again. On each path, the team placed glass plates to change the polarization of light, ...

Quantum objects are notoriously shifty. Take the photon, for example. The quantum of light can act as a particle one moment, following a well-defined path like a tiny projectile, and a wave the ...

It’s in your physics textbook, go look. It says that you can either model light as an electromagnetic wave OR you can model light a stream of photons. You can’t use both models at the same ...