Sunday 18 February 2018

quantum mechanics - Can a free electron absorb a virtual photon even though it cannot absorb an ordinary photon?


Due to conservation laws a free electron,as I understand it, cannot absorb a photon. But in computing QED probabilities, diagrams are drawn showing emission and absorption of photons by an electron. Also QED requires electrons to exchange photons, which means one emits one and the other absorbs one.


Is this because conservation laws are relaxed for virtual particles?




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