Einstein found a deep, formal analogy between radiation quanta (photons) and rest-mass quanta (molecules, electrons). This book devotes a chapter to Einstein’s use of this analogy/method (details » Here ).

These pages attempt to extend Einstein’s method into areas he did not cover to see if doing so provides a new way of approaching various interpretative problems, including wave-particle duality and quantum nonlocality. Einstein’s method suggests that matter and radiation are formally analogous in terms of what exists and what occurs (ontology). Whereas one entity (stationary matter) exists, has the field form and progresses in time, the other entity (radiation) occurs, has the waveform and progresses in space. Non-stationary matter (projectile) is a breed apart and will be treated separately since it combines aspects of radiation (de Broglie waves) and aspects of matter (rest mass).

Matter and radiation are characterized by mass and energy respectively. Providing it is stationary in space relative to an observer, matter has kinetic (rest) mass but no kinetic energy (for that observer). In contrast, radiation has kinetic energy but no kinetic (rest) mass. The following formal conditions then prevail.

Mass-as-stationary-matter exists, is quantized, has the field form, and progresses (ages) over time. On the other hand, energy as radiation occurs, is quantized, has the waveform, and progresses over space. Kinetic mass has the field form because it exists as it extends over space and progresses in time; kinetic energy has the waveform because it occurs as it oscillates over time and progresses in space. Both quanta have an intensity level (density for one, frequency for the other), and this intensity, multiplied by quantum extension (in space or in time) yields its quantitative measure (mass or energy respectively).

The progression of quanta in a dimension reveals another aspect of the formal equality of mass and energy. Quanta progress in one dimension and extend in the opposite dimension. Thus the space-stationary particle (mass) progresses in time but extends in space while the photon has the dimensions reversed since it progresses in space and it extends in time.

Space-stationary mass quanta and time-stationary energy quanta (radiation) progress at the maximum possible rate in opposite dimensions. Photons proceed through space at the speed of light which cannot be exceeded for any observer. Space-stationary mass quanta proceed through time at the maximum rate since once they start moving through space relative to some observer their time progression (clocks) slow down for that observer.

In short, the space-stationary mass (particle) and the time-stationary photon are ontological opposites, and their contrast extends beyond that of existence versus occurrence. Formal comparisons between material quanta and radiation quanta can provide insights into the nature of the photon. In addition, this kind of analysis has a heuristic value: assumptions made about one quantum either have their counterpart in the opposite quantum or they must be considered suspect. Although the greatest physicist, Einstein, used this analysis, current physicists do not. Even worse, this approach is also out of fashion with philosophers of physics. But on the positive side an increasing number of philosophers and physicists have grown dissatisfied with the classical (Copenhagen) interpretation of quantum mechanics. Others resist the very human tendency to cling to familiar and accepted ideas at the expense of considering new ideas. I hope you will read on if you belong to either of these groups.