Photon

"Viewing a Photon as an Event."

Since its modern inception, about a century ago, a
photon is often visualized as some sort of massless,
formless "particle" whizzing through space at the
rigorous velocity of 300,000 kilometers per second. Yet, in
all this time, no such "particle" has since ever been
detained for scrutiny. In fact, to detect a photon is to
destroy it; since it can only be detected in the moment
that imparts its full energy. Thus there is no bonafied
assurance (proof) that the photon exists (as a particle)
prior to that moment. And we know it doesn't exist after
that moment. All we can be sure of is that it is manifest at
the very moment that it imparts its energy.

Neither Max Plank or Einstein, in their analyses of light
quanta, guarantee a particle-like entity at anytime
before or after the sudden energy release that accounts
for the discrete emission of electrons in Henrich Hertz's
1886 discovery. The idea of a 'photon particle' came
along sometime after. It was added--somehow.

So, if we want to be careful in our interpretations of
what we see nature doing--i.e. to be accurate--we might
restrict our definition of a photon to the actual, perceived,
one-time occurrence that we can attest to. In other
words, we might consider a photon as an instantaneous
"event"...nothing more.

Photons are classified in the boson family--along with the
short-lived, naturally occurring W- boson. Bosons exhibit
properties that are not affected by the Pauli exclusion
principal--and, hence, their energies (I think) suggest a
potentially smooth continuum in nature. The W- is also
considered as a carrier of electromagnetic "force". It is
relatively easy to think of the W- boson as an"event"
which occurs once and only once. Its emergence might be
likened to a nanoscopic "explosion"--or otherwise, an
"impulse" in a much larger electromagnetic continuum.
So may be true for the photon.