If gravity bends light, changes the rotation of a photon, does the photon get "clamped "by the weak force?

Answer 1

Photons (spin 1 particles) do not interact in weak ineteractions, since the photon itself is the interaction boson of the elctromagnetic force it doesn't really "play" with the W and Z bosons of the weak force.

Mind you once you hit energy scales of electroweak unification then things might be a bit different, but I can't think of a single photon-weak interaction. Plenty of electroweak interactions, but generally they all involve electrons undergoing weak interactions mediated by the W and Z, no photons show up.

So in short, no photons don't get "clamped" by the weak force since they really don't interact with the weak interaction particles.

Answer 2

I'm not quite sure I know what you mean by 'clamped'. Gravity does not change the rotation (I actually assume you mean the spin) of a photon, it just affects the spacetime geometry that the photon moves through.

As for the weak force, it is probably better to talk about the electro-weak force that unifies electromagnetism and the weak force. The carriers of this force are the photon, the W particle and the Z particle (in answer to a previous poster-both Z and W are relevant to the weak force).

Answer 3

We're talking about two different forces here -- gravity and the weak nuclear force. While some theories suggest that gravity and nuclear forces may combine at very high energy levels, such levels have probably not existed since just after the Big Bang.

Gravity warps the underlying space such that a geodesic path is curved; it is this path that light follows through space. I'm not sure about gravity changing the "rotation" of a photon. "Rotation" sounds more like polarization which is affected by electromagnetic forces.

Weak nuclear forces are mediated by W or Z bosons ( I'm not sure which). I suspect that, except at the high energy levels mentioned earlier, there is no significant interaction between electromagnetic radiation and weak nuclear forces.

Answer 4

Your question makes a false assumption or two.
1. Gravity does not bend light.
___Gravity warps space and light travels in a perfectly straight
line through curved space. Light is not effected by gravity at
all, gravity only effects the media through which light
propagates.
2. A photon does not rotate.
___ A photon has no mass. Explain how an object with no mass
can rotate.

Can you disagree with certainty?

Answer 5

I don't know for sure, but I believe so. All of the fundamental forces can alter the course of and influence any an all energy/matter. Even the weak force is likely to have some influence on a photon.


Tiger Striped Dog MD

Answer 6

But light doesn't bend, or if it does the protons are still equally distributed to a 50/50 chance of direction. At least according to Quantum Mechanic's. It is what theorum you believe which determines the theoretical belief.