%0 Journal Article
%T Can a Free Electron Absorb a Photon?
%A Golden Gadzirayi Nyambuya
%A Godson Fortune Abbey
%A Joseph Simfukwe
%A Saul Paul Phiri
%A Prospery Christopher Simpemba
%A Alok Srivastava
%J International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
%P 161-170
%@ 2161-4725
%D 2025
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/ijaa.2025.152012
%X Contemporary physics holds that it is not possible for an electron to absorb a photon or to form a composite system as the resulting physics thereof leads to a scenario that can not be obtained in reality&#8212;<i>i.e.</i>, it leads to a situation that requires the electron&#8217;s rest mass to be identically equal to zero. This position that a free electron cannot absorb a photon is correct if the photon is assumed to have an identically vanishing mass as is the case in contemporary physics. We herein argue otherwise&#8212;that an electron can indeed absorb a photon and this is on the <i>proviso</i> that the photon in question has a nonzero mass and obeys a specific dispersion relation. Further, we find that the electron can absorb a massive photon only with a frequency below the threshold determined by the photon mass and that of the electron.
%K Afterglow Emission
%K Gamma-Ray Bursts
%K Photon Mass
%K Plasma
%K Time-Lag
%K Time-Delay
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=143714