🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Nov3.175155.27867@impmh.uucp> dsg@impmh.uucp (Dave Gordon) writes:
>...

>This relates to something I have been wondering about for a while now:
>is there an upper bound on the freqency of electromagnetic radiation?

>Consider a single photon: as its energy increses, its "size" decreases
>(assuming that size is related to wavelength).  Since energy is
>equivalent to mass, at some point it must become so dense that it
>collapses into a black hole!

>Is this reasonable?  Is there an upper limit on frequency, such that a
>single photon at this limit collapses into a black hole?  How much energy
>does such a photon have?  Is there any chance of us being able to produce
>one?  What it the lifetime of such a single-photon black hole?

>Or is it not meaningful to talk about the "size" of a photon like this?
>What about other particles (electron, proton, etc) when accelerated to
>sufficient energies?

>Any opinions?
>-- 

You can increase the energy of a photon indefinitely just
by boosting it into a fast enough reference frame.  So the answer
is: no, there is no upper limit on the energy.

It's easier to think of this for objects with mass.  Then,
no matter how fast it's moving, the mass and volume in the *rest frame*
of an object (which are what's important so far as internal gravitational
forces tending to collapse the object are concerned) are invariant.

>===============================================================================
>Dave | dsg@imp.co.uk | +44 753 516599 | <this space is deliberately left blank>
>===============================================================================
>        You are in a little maze of twisty standards, all different
>===============================================================================

Bryan