Question

Can a photon be emitted if it is also not received?

Answer 1

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In GR, the space for a photon is zero, so the destination is the same as the point of departure. In QM, a photon is an interaction between 2 charged particles.

So basically, a photon cannot exist if there are not 2 endpoints along its trajectory (emission and reception).

So, can a photon be emitted if it is also not received somewhere else? Let's say that an experiment is done in which photons are sent in all the directions of the universe. Can such an experiment probe if along a line, there is no matter present whatsoever, by the fact that a photon will simply not be emitted in that direction?

Answer 2

* A source of light is not the source of photons! It is the change of state of an electron around its nucleus (loosing energy and moving to a lower orbit) that generates energy.