• ziggurism@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The electromagnetic field does have a force carrier. It is the photon.

      The photon mediates the force between electrically charged particles. It cannot mediate any reaction between two neutral photons.

      • Ook the Librarian@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ah, I see. Sorry for the snark. I was thinking more in line with the Compton effect, and thought you were talking about something like that too. (Even though it’s clear that you were explicitly not. I thought you were denying photon-virtual photon interaction because I was talking about it in a funny way.)

        I would still say it’s still philosophical whether photons experience acceleration, but I concede that photon-photon interaction is not done by virtual photon exchange.