rationalskepticism.org

zaybu wrote:

twistor59 wrote:

zaybu wrote:

Feynman would not be proud.

Well, Feynman was a fairly modest person, but I'm sure he would feel just a little bit proud, secretly, that he could now use his models of elementary processes to explain macroscopic phenomena such as refraction.

Of course, he would, as the Zhang paper is one of many examples. However, he would not be proud of your speculation. (Photon slowing down, acquiring mass, )

It is an effective propagator designed to compute the amplitude PhotonIntoMedium -> PhotonOutOfMedium

As strict Copenhagenists, the nature and behaviour of the photon while in the medium, we can't determine, all we can do is add up all the possibilities according to the rules. This will result in a propagation amplitude which will be:

small in magnitude for opaque media
large in magnitude for transparent media
have a phase behaviour which is the same as you'd get by giving the photon a mass whilst it was in the medium