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Re: Quantum question?



At 9:20 AM -0800 1/28/00, Ben Crowell wrote:

Leigh Palmer wrote:

A single photon doesn't have a linewidth. Linewidth pertains to the
distribution of energies in an ensemble of photons.

Not true. A photon could only have zero line width if it was a
sine wave of infinite length. How this effect compares in importance
with thermal broadening, for instance, depends on the situation.

You overinterpret my statement. I didn't say that a photon could
have zero linewidth. I said that linewidth is not an attribute
of a photon. I have no idea what is meant by a photon of infinite
length. Coherence length (which is what I guess you mean) is not
an attribute of a single photon either. It, too, pertains to an
ensemble of photons.

Leigh