fullscreen

eFinder

eFinder

Home › Quantum Mechanics › Article

Cutting a photon in two creates an infinite swarm of particles

Phys · · 522 words · By Sam Jarman
Quantum Mechanics Theoretical Physics
headphones Listen to the eFinder podcast briefing
Ready to play
Daily briefing

What to know about Quantum Mechanics

The article discusses a theoretical study published in Physical Review Letters by Johannes Skaar and colleagues regarding the behavior of a single photon when intercepted by a fast optical shutter. The research suggests that such an action would create a superposition of states containing an infinite number of photons due to quantum field fluctuations.

Propaganda risk 10%
Claims checked 6
Techniques found 1
Topics 2

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center100%
Right0%

2 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

June 2, 2026 report Cutting a photon in two creates an infinite swarm of particles Sam Jarman Author Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Robert Egan Associate Editor By definition, elementary particles can't be broken into smaller pieces.

Why it matters

But in a new theoretical study published in Physical Review Letters, Johannes Skaar and colleagues have revealed what would happen if you tried anyway for a single photon.

Common ground

The answer is deeply strange: attempting to cut a photon in two wouldn't produce two smaller photons, but instead conjure an infinite number of them out of thin air.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

The article discusses a theoretical study published in Physical Review Letters by Johannes Skaar and colleagues regarding the behavior of a single photon when intercepted by a fast optical shutter. The research suggests that such an action would create a superposition of states containing an infinite number of photons due to quantum field fluctuations.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-06-photon-infinite-swarm-particles.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 100%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 1 propaganda technique in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning
Loaded Language 70% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 6 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 5
verified Verified 1
check_circle
Claim 1: “the shutter generates something far more strange and complex: a superposition of states containing infinitely many photons simultaneously.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (LinkedIn and other web results) explicitly state that the shutter generates a superposition of states containing infinitely many photons.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 22, 2026 · Instead, it could generate an infinite superposition of photons. Researchers led by Johannes Skaar investigated what would happen if a single ...
https://www.facebook.com/freeastroscience/posts/can-you-real…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 2, 2026 · ... shutter generates something far more strange and complex: a superposition of states containing infinitely many photons simultaneously. This ...
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/keith-king-03a172128_attempti…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 2, 2026 · Infinite superposition Rather than producing a photon on one side and a vacuum on the other, the shutter generates something far more strange ...
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zubair-munawar-38a00367_cutti…
verified
Claim 2: “Isak Cecil Onsager Rukan et al, Truncated photon, Physical Review Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1103/94pm-hp34. On arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2510.21636”
VERIFIED
The claim is verified by a direct reference to the Physical Review Letters accepted paper (DOI: 10.1103/94pm-hp34) and the corresponding arXiv preprint (2510.21636) authored by Isak Cecil Onsager Rukan, Jan Gulla, and Johannes Skaar.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Truncated photon. Isak Cecil Onsager Rukan, Jan Gulla, and Johannes Skaar. Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 18 May, 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/94pm-hp34.
https://journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/10.1103/94pm-hp34
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Oct 24, 2025 ... Title:A truncated photon ; Comments: 13 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters ; Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant- ...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21636
travel_explore
check_circle
Claim 3: “attempting to cut a photon in two wouldn't produce two smaller photons, but instead conjure an infinite number of them out of thin air.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources, including Phys.org and LinkedIn, report that attempting to cut a photon results in an infinite swarm/number of particles rather than two smaller photons.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — 4 days ago · Synonyms for ATTEMPTING: trying, striving, seeking, endeavoring, essaying, assaying, hoping, shooting at; Antonyms of ATTEMPTING: dropping, giving up, quitting
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/attempting
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — ATTEMPTING definition: 1. present participle of attempt 2. to try to do something, especially something difficult: . Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/attempti…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — 2 days ago · ATTEMPTING definition: present participle of attempt. See examples of attempting used in a sentence.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/attempting
check_circle
Claim 4: “Skaar's team considered what would happen if a single photon passed through an optical shutter—essentially a very fast mirror that can be switched on and off to block part of a pulse of light.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources (LinkedIn, a news article from June 12, 2026, and another from May 30, 2026) confirm the use of an optical shutter/ultrafast mirror in Skaar's research.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 12, 2026 · Researchers led by Johannes Skaar investigated what would happen if a single photon passed through an ultra-fast optical shutter capable of ...
https://www.facebook.com/sciencenews/posts/whatever-you-thin…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 2, 2026 · For their investigation, Skaar's team considered what would happen if a single photon passed through an optical shutter—essentially a very fast ...
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zubair-munawar-38a00367_cutti…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — May 30, 2026 · Norwegian physicists discover that trying to cut photons with ultrafast mirrors creates infinite new particles instead of shorter ones, ...
https://www.hallucinationherald.com/article/cutting-photons-…
check_circle
Claim 5: “in a new theoretical study published in Physical Review Letters, Johannes Skaar and colleagues have revealed what would happen if you tried anyway for a single photon.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web sources (Phys.org, Instagram, and others) confirm that Johannes Skaar and colleagues published a theoretical study in Physical Review Letters about 'cutting' a single photon.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Bell's theorem is a term encompassing a number of closely related results in physics, all of which determine that quantum mechanics is incompatible with local hidden-variable theories, given some basi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell's_theorem
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Quantum cryptography is the science of exploiting quantum mechanical properties such as quantum entanglement, measurement disturbance, no-cloning theorem, and the principle of superposition to perform…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a secure communication method that implements a cryptographic protocol based on the laws of quantum mechanics, specifically quantum entanglement, the measurement-dist…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_key_distribution
+ 3 more evidence sources
check_circle
Claim 6: “By rapidly switching the shutter, the team found that these fluctuations are disturbed—and in doing so, they spontaneously create new photons.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm that the rapid action of the shutter disrupts fluctuations and spontaneously creates new photons.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — 3D visualization of quantum fluctuations of the quantum chromodynamics vacuum.2 Quantum fluctuations as loop effects. 3 Quantum fluctuations and effective field theories. 4 See also.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_fluctuation
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Activating the shutter does not create a photon on one side and a vacuum on the other. Instead, it generates a superposition of states containing an infinite number of photons.The rapid action of the …
https://www.techno-science.net/en/news/cut-photon-in-two-it-…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — What is an electric charge? Or a magnetic pole? How does electromagnetic induction work? All these answers in 14 minutes!0:00 - The Electric charge3:06 - The...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoVW7CRR5JY
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.