[AntonioLao]

One million dollars will be given to the person or persons who can close the mass gap of Yang-Mills theory. See http://www.claymath.org/millennium/Yang-Mills_Theory.

This is the same as giving a plausible explanation to the simple question: why electron has mass while the rest mass of a photon is zero. Is this the same as formulating a theory for a quantum of mass? For all the money of the entire universe, the answer must be a ‘yes.’ Next question, could the quantum of mass be the Planck mass? For no money at all, the answer must be a ‘no.’

[baudrunner]

There is a simple explanation for why the rest mass of a photon is zero.

Think of the two-dimensional sine wave. The amplitude value at the moment it crosses the reference line is zero. Turn the source of power off and the energy of the wave collapses to zero, or rest.

During the oscillation of a particle, the rest value of zero is encountered in exactly the same way as the particle first emits and then re-absorbs photonic energy during every cycle of oscillation. The peak value of a photon can therefore not be a constant because this would be a function of the element and also of the intensity of the energy of the source of the oscillations.

Photons aren't particles with mass. They represent the net energy emitted or absorbed as a particle, or atom, oscillates.

A challenge lies in detecting the faintest of photons.

[AntonioLao]

Originally Posted by baudrunner

a simple explanation for why the rest mass of a photon is zero

The million dollars award is for the simple explanation why the electron has mass? But you could try submitting your idea if it indirectly proved Yang-Mills theory.

[baudrunner]

The contest organizers expect math proofs. Theory isn't enough for them.

Anyway, the electron has mass because it is moving so fast. As the velocity of an object approaches c, it gains mass. At c (impossibility) it has infinite mass. This of course implies that the electron has a definable volume as representative of a real particle. I'm not even sure of that. I'm not sure anyone is, actually, but it is a nice explanation, no?

[AntonioLao]

But a more detailed explanation of the same led to the award of the Nobel Prize to 't Hooft in 1999 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardus_'t_Hooft

[baudrunner]

Gee, thanks, Antonio.

I'm honored to find myself in the same ranks as that great fellow Dutchman (Olympic fever).

[AntonioLao]

But too bad you didn't get to share the Nobel Prize money 9 years ago.