Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2014
A reconsideration is made on the basic concepts of the individual photon, including its angular momentum (spin) and a possibly existing very small rest mass. In terms of conventional classical theory, as well as of its quantum mechanical counterpart, the results from a so far established Standard Model of an empty vacuum state are not found to be reconcilable with an experimentally relevant photon model. The main properties of such a model would on the other hand become compatible with the results of a recently established revised quantum electrodynamic theory based on a non-zero electric field divergence in the vacuum and a corresponding symmetry breaking of the electromagnetic field.