/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9577708
Assuming the electron is bound to an atom:
Depending on the energy of the photon:
1) Nothing because the photon is too low an energy.

2) The electron would absorb the photon and become excited. It could then re-emit the photon. That's what fluorescence is.

3) the electron would gain enough energy to leave the atom. This is what ionization is and it's why high energy radiation like xrays are so harmful. It can rip the electrons off the atoms in your D&A which can result in copying errors when your cells divide. This usually manifests as cancer.

If the electron isn't bound to an atom as in a plasma, you'd just be imparting momentum to the electron which it can also re-emit as a photon if the conditions are right.


It's also maybe worth nothing that photons happens to be the way that electrons and other charged particles interact as in the Feynman diagram in pic related. The electron on the left emits a photon which changes it's momentum and the one on the right absorbs the photon which changes it's momentum . The two are essentially "bombarding" each other with photons in the act of repelling each other. There's a lot of electrons and protons doing this and so the space around you is effectively a seething sea of photons as every charged particle communicates it's existence to every other charged particle in the observable universe.

A free electron cannot absorb a photon (derived using the law of conservation of energy). Then how can an electron be accelerated by an electromagnetic field?