Current physics calls a photon a massless particle that is also a wave, but can’t explain how it is so. It is said to be a particle because it hits a screen point, but how it got to that point is an assumption tacked onto the facts. According to quantum theory, a photon travels as a wave that collapses to a point at the screen, and its critics couldn’t fault this logic because it has no fault. The evidence, as usual, supports quantum theory but the standard model of physics still calls a photon an elementary particle.

Quantum theory describes a photon as a wave that spreads until it restarts at a point, like a particle, and that is why it works. In this model, it is a cloud of instances that can travel through two slits at once, but which one then is the photon? The question betrays our bias, that a photon is a particle, but according to quantum theory, it isn’t. To say a photon has wave function assumes a thing with wave properties, which isn’t possible. It follows that rather than having a wave function, the photon is the wave function, or more exactly, what generates it.

What a photon is depends on how the evidence is interpreted. In physical terms, a particle seen at a point must have always been so, but a process that restarts at a point needn’t remain so. It can just spread again, which a particle can’t do. It follows that a photon is never a particle, even when it hits a screen, as one event doesn’t make a particle. Based on quantum theory, the particle seen is a physical event caused by many quantum events, but events don’t abide because it isn’t in their nature to do so. 

What then continues when a photon restarts? It isn’t its physical or quantum states but the process behind them. Quantum waves never stop because they rise again from the ashes of quantum collapse, like the phoenix. If all the matter we see, as the next chapter suggests, came from light, then it is immortal in our terms. That light never dies and space always abides was Act 1 of the drama of our universe, so if all the world’s a stage (Note 1), classical mechanics describes the stage but quantum mechanics describes the backstage events that make it happen, which is why they never die.

Note 1. As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII, Line 139

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A process can spread on a network by instantiation, an object orientated design method that lets one source class direct many objects. For example, when screen buttons look and act the same, instead of duplicating the code for each, programmers let one class direct all of them. This saves time as they can change all the buttons of a class in one place. Instantiation works for any screen object, like a pop-up or a drop-down menu, and local differences like color can be a parameter. Computing calls such buttons instances of a source class.  

A quantum wave can then be a spreading cloud of instances directed by a server with a frequency parameter. Why then does the wave weaken as it spreads? If a network server instantiates many buttons on different screens, feeding them sequentially might give some screens a button but others nothing at all, at any moment. It is better to feed one instruction to every button, then repeat, to keep every screen busy. If a server supports all its instances equally, as their number increases, that support will inevitably weaken.

If quantum instantiation is the same, more photon instances will get fewer up-down instructions so their amplitude will reduce. A quantum wave will then weaken as it spreads, just as a water wave does, as the quantum flux follows Gauss’s law. As the wave spreads to give more instances, each will get fewer vibration instructions, and so vibrate less. Spreading a quantum wave then doesn’t alter its frequency, which depends on wavelength, but its amplitude will reduce as it spreads. But if one server supports all the instances of a photon that spreads on the network, what then is “a photon”? 

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In physics, light is an electromagnetic wave whose many wave lengths give a spectrum (3.3.1). In this model, light is a quantum wave that does the same except it is a processing wave, hence quantum theory says it can collapse and restart. Quantum waves then spread at the speed of light because each network point passes its processing on to all its neighbors every cycle. The result is a wave that spreads but why then does this wave travel forward, rather than spreading equally in all directions?

Huygen’s Principle, that light is a wave that moves forward because each point is a new wave source, then describes how processing spreads on a network. Each point spreads the wave in all directions, but the front starts after the back, so they are out of phase. As a result, the spread behind the wave front mostly cancels out, but the spread forward doesn’t, so the wave moves forward. Light thus moves forward because the wave front starts after its rear, so what is behind the wave front cancels out. Newton’s particle theory was simpler but Huygen’s theory is better because light does act like a wave. Light as a processing wave spreading on a network then supports Huygens waves rather than Newton’s particles.

That a photon is a process distributed over the points of its wave length explains its frequency, but what happens as it spreads? Gauss noted that a pebble dropped in a pool creates ripples that decrease strength because the initial activity is divided more. In his words, the flux per ripple is constant but for friction. In Figure 3.12, each ripple spreads the same energy over a larger circle so it becomes weaker.

Applying this principle to light, it weakens as it spreads but doesn’t change its frequency. Water waves lose energy as they spread by friction, and so fade away, but quantum waves spread without friction until they restart anew in a physical event. It follows that distributing a quantum wave reduces its frequency, but doesn’t weaken it, while spreading on a network weakens it, but doesn’t alter its frequency.

However unlike a ripple, quantum waves spread in three dimensions, in an expanding sphere, so they weaken as an inverse square of distance. Chapter 5 deduces the inverse square laws of electricity, magnetism, and gravity from Gauss’s principle, but how exactly can processing spread on a network?

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Physics understands how physical waves spread but how do quantum waves spread on a network? Processing waves should spread at one point per network cycle, which is the speed of light, but how do they spread? The method proposed is instantiation, which in computing lets a server delegate a process to run at many locations. The quantum no-cloning theorem (Wootters & Zurek, 1982) doesn’t let us copy quantum states, but a server that generates a process can easily duplicate it.

3.4.1 Light Spreads.

3.4.2 Instantiation.

3.4.3 What is a Photon?

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To recap, Planck’s constant is the smallest unit of energy because a Planck process is the core network operation behind the simplest entity, one photon. Planck’s constant is then also the smallest possible energy transfer, which is that of one photon.

It seems strange then that Planck’s constant also defines the smallest unit of space, yet if it was smaller, atoms would be smaller, and if it was larger, quantum effects would be larger. The equations of physics don’t explain why this is so, just that it must be.

In a physical world, energy could get smaller and smaller, but in a processing world, there must be a smallest process. This Planck process was described as a circular rotation (3.3.1), so light vibrates by setting values in a transverse circle at right angles to our space. Plank’s constant then depends on the size of a transverse circle, which arises from the number of neighbors a network point has.

The last chapter also defined a planar circle in our space, that limits how a photon vibration is passed on. The circumference of this circle defines a radius that is the distance between adjacent network points, which is by definition the smallest distance of our space. The smallest unit of our space is then defined by the size of a planar circle, which also arises from how many neighbors a network point has. 

The size of a transverse circle then defines the unit of energy, and the size of a planar circle defines the unit of space, so if the quantum network is symmetric, both circles will be the same size. It follows that if Planck’s constant reflects the size of a transverse circle, it will also reflect the size of a planar circle. The basic units of energy and space then relate because both derive from the same network feature, of how many neighbors a point has around it. Planck’s constant defines the units of both space and energy because both reflect the connectivity of the quantum network.

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Planck’s constant is the smallest possible unit of energy. Energy, like space and time, is a key concept of physics that was initially thought to be continuous. It was defined in the nineteenth century as the ability to move matter around, which was called work, so burning coal in a steam engine produced work by converting coal energy to the kinetic energy of the moving train. The idea that energy allows work that transfers energy explained how engines operate, but there was a problem.

The problem was that light waves didn’t follow the rules. The furnaces of the time gave off light at many frequencies, so as they got hotter, all the frequencies should increase, but they didn’t. Hot furnaces didn’t give off lethal doses of x-rays that killed their workers, so physics called that fact the ultraviolet catastrophe because for them, that their laws didn’t apply was a disaster. 

The law in question was that the energy of a physical wave increased as its frequency squared, so twice the frequency gave four times the energy. Heating a furnace should then increase all its light frequencies equally, including the dangerous ones. Why it didn’t was a puzzle, until Planck proposed that atoms emit light energy in multiples of a basic amount, later called Planck’s constant, by the equation:

Light Energy = Plank’s constant x Frequency

That light energy varied directly with frequency predicted the observed result, but no-one knew why. In theory, waves are continuous, so adding energy to high frequency light should just increase it, but heating a furnace didn’t increase all frequencies equally. Einstein then showed that light comes in little packets, called photons, based on the photo-electric effect. Heating a furnace then didn’t produce as many high frequency photons because they need more energy to happen, so the ultraviolet catastrophe was avoided.

It followed that energy isn’t continuous but comes in basic units represented by Planck’s constant, the smallest unit of energy. Why light comes in indivisible units called photons remained a mystery but a processing approach attributes it to there being a core process that can’t be divided further. Planck’s constant then represents this process, which is the basic operation of quantum network. Light comes in little packets because each photon is one Planck process and photons are indivisible because the process behind them is indivisible. Equally, Planck’s constant is the smallest energy transfer because it represents the smallest network transfer operation.

Energy in processing terms is then the processing transfer rate at a point. If every photon is the same process distributed, shorter wavelength photons transfer more processing at each point and so have more energy. In contrast, a long wavelength photon transfers less processing at each point, so it has less energy. It follows that the energy of a photon depends directly on its wavelength, and hence its frequency, just as Planck described. By this logic, the equation Planck assumed can be derived from processing principles (Note 1).

To recap, one photon is one Planck process divided over its network wave length, which can’t increase or decrease by less than a point. Adding a point distributes the process more, so the transfer rate we call energy is less, and reducing a point makes the transfer rate we call energy increase.

But if every photon is the same process divided more or less, why does high frequency light have more energy? If every photon makes the same dot on a screen, shouldn’t every photon have the same energy? It does, but high frequency light delivers more photons per second, and so more energy. Increasing a photon’s frequency doesn’t increase its total energy, just the rate at which it arrives. X-rays deliver more photons per second than radio-waves, not more energy per photon. The energy of light varies linearly with frequency, not its square, as it would for a physical wave.

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Note 1. Let one photon be a Planck process divided over the points of its wavelength, and the constant h represent that process as a quantum network transfer. Let energy E be the processing transfer rate at a point and W be the number of points in the photon wavelength. Every photon is then one Planck process divided between W points, so the processing transfer rate at a point E = h/W. If f is the number of network cycles each point takes to run a Planck process that it can complete in one cycle, then f = 1/W. The equation E = h.f then follows, where E, h, and f are defined in quantum units. Converting these units to per second terms then gives E = h.f, which is Planck’s equation. Plank’s constant then represents the transfer of one Planck process.

Processing systems need fundamental processes as particle systems need fundamental particles. Every CPU has a set of fundamental processes called its instruction set, so if “add one” is fundamental, it adds a hundred by adding one a hundred times. As computing evolved to include databases and networks, the instruction set got bigger, so it was called Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC). Then it was realized that fewer instructions are better because they run faster and there is less to go wrong, giving Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC). The ultimate RISC design is one process that does everything, and the quantum network instruction set seems to be just that, based on the process:

Set the next value in a circle

This process, to set values in a circle, is now proposed to underlie space and light. It is reliable because each cycle ends where it began, ready to run again. If it runs at one point, the positive and negative values cancel to give a null result that can be space. If it runs at many points that are passed on, it can be the sine wave of light. The same process can then represent space or light depending on whether it runs at one point (space), or is distributed over many points (light).

In quantum theory, quantum waves spread at the speed of light but collapse to restart at a point when observed. The quantum model explains this strange behavior as processing waves spreading on a network, generated by a server that can restart them as needed. One process can then create the entire electro-magnetic spectrum, depending on how it is distributed.

Figure 3.11 shows one core process distributed over a wavelength of points, where distributing a process runs it slower, just as dividing a workforce makes each job take longer to finish. When the wave is distributed less, it is then short wavelength light that runs faster at each point. Distributing the same process more is long wavelength light that runs slower at each point. Light then, in all its forms, is one process distributed more or less, spreading on the quantum network at the speed of light.  

In Figure 3.11, one core process (1), is distributed (2) more or less between client points (3), to give electro-magnetic waves (4), that are passed on at the speed of light (5). The core process is a rotation that spreads as a sine wave, and can divide to give any light wave length. Shorter wave lengths run each point  faster, while longer wave lengths run each point slower.

As the process spreads, new points begin the process, but as they start, those at the rear are finishing. Each network cycle, the wave spreads to new points, leaving those behind to run to completion. As new points begin, others finish, so the total server demand per photon stays the same. Every photon in the electro-magnetic spectrum, whether a radio wave or an X-ray, is then the same process distributed more or less. This process is also the null process of space, so light is, in effect, space on the move. 

This fundamental process can be called a Planck process, because it is the smallest activity of the quantum network, just Planck energy is the smallest activity of our world.

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If light is a quantum wave, and quantum waves are processing waves, what is quantum processing? Whatever it is, it has to generate the entire electro-magnetic spectrum, from radio-waves to gamma rays, and the null process that represents empty space. 

QR3.3.1. The Fundamental Process

QR3.3.2. The Planck Process

QR3.3.3. Network Symmetry

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Einstein deduced that the speed of light is constant from how our world behaves, not from any cause, so why does light have a constant speed? If light is particles moving, why can’t we nudge them to go just a bit faster, at the speed of light plus one? Why does our universe have a speed limit? The answer, according to current physics, is that:

“… the speed of light is a constant because it just is, and because light is not made of anything simpler.” (Laughlin, 2005), p15.

Yet “because it just is” isn’t a very good reason in science. Particles move according to their mass, so shouldn’t photons with no mass go at any speed? In contrast, if a photon is a wave, its speed should depend on the medium that transmits it. It follows that if light is a wave on a network, it should move at the rate of that network. How fast then is the quantum network?

A 5GHz computer network runs at 5,000,000,000 cycles per second. That seems very fast but Planck time suggests that the quantum network cycles at an astonishing 1045 times a second! Planck time is the smallest possible time scale in our universe, and Planck length is the smallest possible distance, so dividing this distance by this time should give the speed of light, and sure enough it does (Note 1). The speed of light then, like every wave, is limited by the speed of the medium that transmits it.

Yet the term speed of light betrays our particle bias, as it assumes that light sets its own pace, but waves don’t do that. They only move as fast as their medium allows, so if space is the medium of light, what we call the speed of light is actually the speed of space. Light, like every wave, moves as fast as its medium allows, so the speed of light is constant because space everywhere is the same.

Why then does light slow down when it moves in water? Again, our particle bias assumes it is in the water. If light moves in water, we say the medium is water, and if it moves in glass, we say the medium is glass, but if it moves in space, we call it a wave of nothing, which is inconsistent! Surely light has the same medium in every case. If the medium of light in space is the quantum network, it is also the medium when it moves through water or glass. Light then doesn’t slow down because water is a denser medium, but because the quantum network has to also generate the water. The quantum network slows down when it has other things to do, so light slows down in water for the same reason that a game slows down when its computer has other things to do.

Light moves at different speeds through different materials because the quantum network has to also generate them. Fortunately, the network still processes photons in strict sequence, one after the other, like cars in a queue. Each point handles the photon it has before accepting the next one, so even if it runs slower, they still arrive in lock-step order. This maintains causality, as if one photon could overtake another, we could see an object arrive before it left! Causality requires photons to stay in sequence and the quantum engine rigorously maintains this.

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Note 1: The speed of light c = L_P/T_P, where L_P is a Planck length of 1.616×10⁻³⁵meters and T_P is Planck time of 5.39 × 10⁻⁴⁴ of a second. This gives the speed of light as 299,792,458 meters per second (see here).

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A wave, by definition, vibrates in a medium, so what moves when light does? It is said that the electro-magnetic field does, but that movement isn’t physical, so physics just declares that:

“… we accept as nonexistent the medium that moves when waves of quantum mechanics propagate.” (Laughlin, 2005), p56.

After all, if quantum waves don’t exist, no medium is needed to transmit them! Electromagnetic field theory then glibly explains light by saying that electric changes cause magnetic changes, and magnetic changes cause electric changes, in a circular fashion, so light is said to be a:

“… self-renewing field disturbance.” (Wilczek, 2008), p212.

Yet what renews the fields that renew? That an electric field powers a magnetic field that powers the electric field is like Peter paying Paul’s bill, and Paul paying Peter’s bill. With such logic, I could borrow a million dollars now and never pay it back. If light self-renews, it is a cosmic Ponzi scheme, and the perpetual-motion machine long-sought by medieval alchemists is the photon!

Light waves never fade but waves that move matter up and down (Figure 3.10) produce friction by the second law of thermodynamics, so they always fade, with no exceptions. Yet light that has traveled in space for billions of years hits our telescopes the same as local light, so is it a frictionless wave? If so, it can’t arise from matter moving, but how can vibrating nothing (space) create something (light)?

If light is a wave that can travel through space, empty space must be its medium, so empty space isn’t empty. In this model, empty space is constantly active, generating a null result, hence the:

“… vacuum state is actually full of energy…” (Davies & Brown, 1999), p140.

Instead of particles moving in empty space, light is now a wave on a surface that supports it. Instead of vibrating nothing, it now vibrates something, namely the quantum network. Instead of electrical and magnetic fields mutually causing each other, which is illogical, the quantum network causes both. Space then has energy because the quantum network is always on, to power any light that passes, just as an idle computer is always on to respond to any keystroke (Note 1). Physical waves always fade but quantum waves don’t, because they are sustained by a network that can also restart them if needed. Instead of being mostly dead, our universe is now literally pulsing with activity.

What then moves when light does? In network terms, the answer is processing. In computing, processing sets values, so when a laptop runs a game, it just sets values. In a game like World of Warcraft, these values generate the game, but we see monsters not the computer code. Likewise, the quantum values that generate our world have no meaning to us. Feynman called these values vector potentials, Born called them probability amplitudes, Hiley called them quantum potentials (Davies & Brown, 1999) p138, and others refer to the quantum function (ᴪ), but what we call them doesn’t matter. What matters is that they cause physical events, and this is why quantum theory works. 

Note 1. Processing must always run, so an “idle” computer still runs a null cycle, so it isn’t doing nothing.

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