Varró Sándor (ELI, ERIC, ALPS)

The Massive Photons of Louis de Broglie and the X17 Particle

Az előadás kivonata: According to recent experiments, the angular correlations of electron-positron pairs, stemming from excited products of certain nuclear reactions, show an anomaly at large relative angles. The kinematics of this so-called ATOMKI anomaly has been explained by assuming the existence of a neutral boson, the “X17 particle” with an invariant mass around 17 MeV/c^2. So, besides the zero-mass gamma radiation, such particles would cover the energy and momentum of the created pairs. The observation of the ATOMKI anomaly has initiated various theoretical studies on the possible nature of this hypothetical particle, which we shall briefly review. Then we outline our approach, on the basis of which we have recently derived a simple analytic formula, yielding the value 17.0087 MeV/c^2 for the invariant mass of the dressed radiation generated due to the interaction with a proton. Besides the Sommerfeld fine structure constant and the proton mass, the derived formula contains merely an elementaty statistical factor. This result suggests that the X17 particle may perhaps be a sort of massive photon. By broadening the scope of the subject, in the third part of the talk we shall highlight the work of Louis de Broglie, who invented the concept of matter waves just hundred years ago, as is well-known in the history of quantum mechanics. On the other hand, it is lesser known that Louis de Broglie also discussed the question of a possible photon mass in several publications througout decades. After summarizing the various concepts on the finite mass of the photon, we show the subtleties of emission and propagation of massive photons.

Az előadóról:

• curriculum vitae
• google scholar