Photons come from mass not energy

The Forces of Nature by Kelland Terry, Ph.D.
A burning fire gives off many different colors because there are many different hot atoms involved, and each one gives off its own distinct pattern. It is important to note that photon emission involves the whole atom, not just the electrons in orbit about the protons.

An electric light bulb with a tungsten filament is an extreme case of photon emission. A 100 watt light bulb burns for about 1000 hours. The photons emitted by the light bulb during its life time far exceeds the light put out by a pile of burning logs. It can be shown that the electrons in the tungsten filament, including those flowing as part of the electric current, have insufficient mass to account for the mass of the photons emitted by the light bulb. It seems there are two possibilities. First, it might be imagined that the energy of the moving electrons is converted to mass, which is then emitted as photons we see as visible light. The second possibility is that quarks inside the nucleus of the atom convert some of the mass of the atom into photons, which are then passed to the electrons in orbit. The electrons would then become unstable, move to an outer orbit, and emit photons that we see as visible light.

Let’s examine the first possibility. To me, it is inconceivable that energy, which is a mathematical concept, can be converted to mass. In the case of a fluorescent light bulb, the highly energetic electrons boiling off the end of the electrodes jostle the mercury atoms inside the tube, which give off photons. The free electrons entering the tube do not emit light even though they are being jostled about by the AC current.

The second possibility does not require mass to be created from energy, and the mass of the tungsten atom would only have to be depleted a very small, insignificant percentage to account for the mass of all the photons created by a tungsten filament during its life time. A quark spinning inside a proton would be jostled and energized by the electric current. Under these conditions, it is visualized that a quark spinning on its axis would incorporate some of the mass of the proton into photons which it would then pass on to the electrons in orbit about the proton. This would increase the angular momentum of the electron and cause it to move to an outer orbit where it is less stable. Eventually it would emit the photon, and we would see it as visible light. The reverse of this process would allow exogenous photons to be incorporated back into the nucleus of the tungsten atom, which would restore its mass.

Passage of photons between quarks and electrons would be facilitated because both would be going through their string cycles in the same time frame because the two are connected by elastic strings. P-electons emanating from protons (quarks) become bound to e-electons emanating from electrons in orbit about the protons, which pulls the two string cycles into synchrony.

I have presented this subject to explain that it is not necessary to believe in the conversion of mass to energy and vise versa to explain photon emission. Kelland—www.vestheory.com