destroying photons?

Question

if you shine a powerful Laser into another Laser, would the photons be destroyed ?

Answer 1

A Photon when travels through transparent matter does so at a lower speed than c, the speed of light in a vacuum. For example, photons suffer so many collisions on the way from the core of the sun that radiant energy can take years to reach the surface; however, once in open space, a photon only takes 8.3 minutes to reach Earth. The factor by which the speed is decreased is called the refractive index of the material. In a classical wave picture, the slowing can be explained by the light inducing electric polarization in the matter, the polarized matter radiating new light, and the new light interfering with the original light wave to form a delayed wave. In a particle picture, the slowing can instead be described as a blending of the photon with quantum excitations of the matter (quasi-particles such as phonons and excitons) to form a polariton; this polariton has a nonzero effective mass, which means that it cannot travel at c. Light of different frequencies may travel through matter at different speeds; this is called dispersion. The polariton propagation speed v equals its group velocity, which is the derivative of the energy with respect to momentum.

v = \frac{d\omega}{dk} = \frac{dE}{dp}

Retinal straightens after absorbing a photon γ of the correct wavelength
Retinal straightens after absorbing a photon γ of the correct wavelength

where, as above, E and p are the polariton's energy and momentum magnitude, and ω and k are its angular frequency and wave number, respectively. In some cases, the dispersion can result in extremely slow speeds of light in matter. The effects of photon interactions with other quasi-particles may be observed directly in Raman scattering and Brillouin scattering.

So there is no way to destroy a photon, however it can be absorbed.

Photons can also be absorbed by nuclei, atoms or molecules, provoking transitions between their energy levels. The absorption of photons can even break chemical bonds, as in the photodissociation of chlorine; this is the subject of photochemistry.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Since photons exhibit wave-like properties they would interact on that basis. i.e. If they were the same wavelength and amplitude they may cancel. In this case therefore, the photons would be "destroyed". The more interesting question would be did they exist in the first place...? More likely that photons are always just temporary disturbances to some sort of background baseline energy level. The wave can therefore go to zero (i.e no light is seen and the photon is essentially destroyed) without going against any conservation laws.

Answer 3

Photons are absorbed in many elementary particle interactions including the production of a particle/antiparticle pair. They are gauge bosons and therefore and apparent annihiliation in such interaction must conserve an overall balanced zero in all quantum numbers. As a massless particle, a photon cannot spontaneously decay into massive particles. There are virtual photons as a device of convenience in some Feynman diagrams that appear to do this though.

Answer 4

No, the lights would merely pass by each other. Photons are essentially energy and since energy can enither be created or destroyed, the photons can't annihilate themselves. They could cause production of a particle and its anti-particle, called pair production, but the total energy of the two photons is the same as the rest energies ofthe two particles plus whatever kinectic energy they have.

Answer 5

Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. What will most likely happen is neither beam will interfere with the other in any way.

Answer 6

they act as a magnetic monopole

Answer 7

No