Answer to Question #100856 in Quantum Mechanics for Ra

Question

To give the charge, baryon number and spin of a photon and a proton.

Answer 1

Photon is massless particle with spin 1. Its law of motion coincides with Maxwell's equation. Photons are quanta of electromagnetic waves which always moves with speed of light. Typically, particles with spin 1 can have three states of internal amount of motion -1,0,1. However, from Maxwell's equations follows the transverse nature of electromagnetic waves and their corresponding quantum photon. Therefore, of the three states for the photon, only two remain -1 and 1 which correspond to the two states of polarization of the electromagnetic waves. Baryon and lepton numbers of photon is 0. This is manifested in the processes of annihilation of proton and antiproton, electron and positron, as well as in the process of birth of particles in collisions of photons. Photon has no electric charge.

Proton has electric charge +1e. Its spin is 1/2, and baryon number +1.