attractive force via particle exchange - how?
- From: "shevek4@xxxxxxxxx" <shevek4@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 8 Aug 2005 12:47:19 -0700
Every now and then somebody expalains electromagnetic forces as
"exchanges of virtual photons". My question is simple: how can this
be, for the case of attractive forces?
For example, let's take an electron and a positron. If the electron
emits a photon in the direction away from the positron, this will give
it momentum toward the positron. However, this is not an exchange of
particles but a net emission of them. If the emitted particles go
towards the other particle (an exchange), this will be a net repulsion.
Some have answered that the exchanged particles have a "negative
momentum" - supposedly a momentum directed oppositely to the velocity
vector! This sounds completely crazy. Others have answered that the
analogy of force-carrying particles is a mathematical one and the
Feynman diagram reasoning involved in my question is simply misplaced.
Is there a better answer?
Thanks!
.
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