{"paper":{"title":"Who has seen a free photon?","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"physics.gen-ph","authors_text":"Hayato Saigo, Izumi Ojima","submitted_at":"2011-01-30T16:20:51Z","abstract_excerpt":"While the notion of the position of photons is indispensable in the quantum optical situations, it has been known in mathematical physics that any position operator cannot be defined for a massless free particle with a non-zero finite spin. This dilemma is resolved by introducing the \"effective mass\" of a photon due to the interaction with matter. The validity of this interpretation is confirmed in reference to the picture of \"polariton\", a basic notion in optical and solid physics. In this connection, we discuss the long-standing controversy between Minkowski's and Abraham's definitions of th"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1101.5782","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}