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Comparison of Several Physical Properties of Phonons and Photons

	Phonon	Photon
Type of boson	type-II composite	simple
Propagating media	discrete	continuous
Interactive?	yes	yes in nonlinear media, no in linear media
Massive?	yes	no
Macroscopic description	wave equations for elastic continuum	Maxwell equations
Microscopic description	Schrödinger equation	Quantum Electrodynamics
Number of normal modes per allowed k	3p modes for each k	2 modes for each k
Dispersive?	always: w = ws(k)	not in vacuum: w = ck
Restriction on wave vector k	confined to first Brillouin zone	arbitrary
Linear momentum?	vanishes	non-zero
Spin	not defined	s = 1

Table Source:
X. Hu, Quantum Fluctuations In Condensed Matter Systems, UM Ph.D. thesis 1997, Page 31.
X. Hu and F. Nori, UM Preprint, 1995.
Physica B 263, 16 (1999); This summarizes one of the two Plenary Talks at the
Ninth International Conference on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter, Lancaster, 1998.

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Comparison of Several Physical Properties of Phonons and Photons