Understanding that photons are considered not to have any mass, they do have velocity and as such I wonder if from the frame of reference of a photon (if a frame of reference can be identified) when it leaves its origin and arrives at its destination is it instantaneous for the photon regardless of the distance traveled? I wonder if anyone has pondered this question before?

 

By the way, I am new here and hope this question is appropriate for this forum.

To be realistic, think in terms of a person going at almost the speed of light to another star system and returning to earth. That person will have aged a small amount compared to someone (twin) on earth. This is the essence of the twin paradox.

The frame can't be identified. Photons don't have a frame where they are at rest, so the physics we know doesn't apply.

Thanks for the feedback. It is interesting to me that a "photon" can't have an identifiable frame of reference when such a concept means that without its own frame of reference it would not be able to distinguish itself from any other object in the universe. It seems, experimentally, there has to be a separate frame of reference for the photon in order for it to display the very experiment that identified its duality in nature between wave and particle form. Not arguing any position here just expressing my observation and logic. I also realize this is not a unique question. After posting, I dug into the internet a bit and found it a rather common question with similar responses from the community. I did not however find any logical or practical conversations that address my point about relativistic separation.

 

Happy posting

It is interesting to me that a "photon" can't have an identifiable frame of reference when such a concept means that without its own frame of reference it would not be able to distinguish itself from any other object in the universe.

What we mean here is that there are no inertial frames of reference for which a photon can be considered at rest. Thus the 'point of view' of a photon as we would understand it in special relativity is lost.

If you graph things it does trend that way. Probably just something that will be better explained in a future Theory.