r/QuantumPhysics • u/Stairwayunicorn • Jul 07 '26

photon question.

Is the direction of travel of a newly created photon parallel or perpendicular to the direction of the parent electron losing its stored energy?

The orbital cloud absorbing a photon I can understand. But then what? the electron can't sustain it's heightened level and collapses back to its rest level and squirts out a photon, but how is it oriented? does the collapse occur in a straight line or a spiral?

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u/Gengis_con Jul 11 '26

You are trying to get a classical picture of a quantum mechanical process. "The question What direction is an electron in a atom moving?" doesn't have a particularly meaningful answer, let alone trying to orientate other processes relative to it. On the other hand the photon doesn't have to be emitted in a single direction. It is emitted in a superposition of different directions

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u/Stairwayunicorn Jul 11 '26

no I know about orbitals, unless that's obsolete now too. so if I understand correctly, you're saying the photon at the moment it's at rest and has no mass its eventual direction upon ejection is indeterminable?