Amplitude of a photon?

[Jay-qu]

if the amplitude of a photon the magnitude of its electric and perpendicular magnetic field? or is it something else...
when photons are in step with each other they constructivly interfere - does that mean the amplitude is increased?

[Erasmus00]

Originally Posted by Jay-qu

if the amplitude of a photon the magnitude of its electric and perpendicular magnetic field? or is it something else...
when photons are in step with each other they constructivly interfere - does that mean the amplitude is increased?

Matter waves are interpreted as probability waves. The amplitude squared is the probability of finding the wave at that one point in space. It is seperate from the E and B fields. When they constructively interfere the amplitude is indeed increased, as you are more likely to find a photon at that point in space.
-Will

[Qfwfq]

Uh, I'm not sure of your exact meaning when you say:

Originally Posted by Erasmus00

It is seperate from the E and B fields.

but certainly the electromagnetic field is the wave function. For quantization in field theory it is usually reprsented in terms of Aµ rather than E and B. The charged fermion-photon interaction term has the contraction between Aµ and gammaµ in it.