Photon: history, mass, charge

Abstract

The talk consists of three parts. ``History'' briefly describes the emergence and evolution of the concept of photon during the first two decades of the 20th century. ``Mass'' gives a short review of the literature on the upper limit of the photon's mass. ``Charge'' is a critical discussion of the existing interpretation of searches for photon charge. Schemes, in which all photons are charged, are grossly inconsistent. A model with three kinds of photons (positive, negative and neutral) seems at first sight to be more consistent, but turns out to have its own serious problems.