electromagnetism - How is light produced?

To be clear here, My question arises from studying Electromagnetic induction and polarisation and photoelectric effect. From here I've gained the knowledge that creation of a photon involves:

• Electromagnetic Induction - The fact that a time varying spatial magnetic field which creates a closed loop electric field [Super Confusing as to why universe does that]


• Polarisation - In the books, they show that light is oscillating electric field vectors and magnetic field vectors


• Photoelectric Effect - Creation of light has something to do with an electron returning to a lower energy state, not saying that it's the only way.

So how does light get produced? I'm seeking in-depth explanation.

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The question arose when I was talking to my friend about a hypothesis of mine where I was saying that If I released a photon from , say a torch. I could, under some known error margin, say at what instant the photon was created but according to what I've heard multiple times, time stops at light speed. So, any photon at 'c' would basically never had experienced any time. So, from the perspective of the photon, its birth can't be defined. We seem to reach a paradox here, if I observe a time at which the photon was created but the photon has no notion of time, it has no notion of a beginning or an end. Then, I tried to expand the concept of the hypothesis to say that maybe in a similar sense, the universe doesn't hold a concept of beginning or an end. As we experience it's perspective, we can't determine its birth time using our maths which has been cultivate throughout this universe, and we also know that maths do break down when we try to solve equations for the t=0 time of Big Bang. NOTE: This talk was just to have fun, I just like physics and like to talk about the universe, however, I understand that I might have just annoyed someone by ignoring a dozen of laws and theorems that I'm yet to find out about. APOLOGIZES!

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I'm expecting a somewhat dumbed down explaination, now don't get too carried away by that. I'm a high school student but I do love a bit of technical mumbo jumbo but I'm just asking to keep in mind that I'm in high school. Example:

Say we have an equation: x³+x²-x+44=0 Instead of saying the degree of equation is 3 maybe say the highest power in the equation is 3.

Answer

You are rambling in the text of the questions, so I will just address the title, which might attract a google search.

How is light produced?

The underlying framework of nature from which all classical theories emerge is quantum mechanical , based on special relativity and for large distances General Relativity, though gravity has not yet been definitively quantized ( only effective theories exist).

Light is a classical physics concept it is mathematically beautifully described by Maxwell's equations, and it arises from changes in electric or magnetic fields.

Photons are elementary particles in the particle standard model, and classical light emerges from a confluence of innumerable photons.That electromagnetic radiation (light) emerges from a superposition of photons can be shown mathematically, for those interested in quantum electrodynamics.

To understand how light is produced one has to understand the underlying quantum mechanical processes, which are many.

One is in transitions from excited energy levels of atomic or molecular bound states to a lower energy level, when there is an emission of a photon. The excitation energy to start with can be single other photons, or to energy supplied by the temperature of a wire, for example, where the tail of the black body radiation can have visible frequencies.This is the light coming from incandescent lamps, where the temperature of the wire is increased by the applied voltage to the point of incandescence.

A continuous spectrum of photons is supplied by the plasma of the sun, where a large part of the black body radiation, due to motion of electrons and ions generates photons in the visible range. These include compton scattering, i.e. the scattering of a photon on a charged particle and entering the visible part of the spectrum.

A fire has a combination of energy level change photons with plasma induce photons, etc.

The way these photons built up one by one the light that we see with our eyes is not a summation , as a summation of bricks make up a wall. It is a superposition of the quantum mechanical wave functions of the photons

which builds up the classical electromagnetic field with its electric and magnetic field properties. The complex conjugate square of the superposed photon wavefunctions gives the probability of a photon interacting at (x,y,z,t) including in the retina of your eye to give the impression of "light".

To address a misunderstanding, you say:

We seem to reach a paradox here, if I observe a time at which the photon was created but the photon has no notion of time, it has no notion of a beginning or an end

The photon has no brain that can contain notions. It is always mathematically possible to define coordinate transformations, but one has to keep consistency, not mix up coordinate systems, as you are doing introducing your observations in your coordinate system (at rest) observing a photon that has a beginning and an end , with a framework going with the photon speed c, where due to the form of the Lorenz transformations there is no meaning in distance or time intervals because of the infinities introduced by transforming to such a coordinate system. I will copy this answer:

When we're travelling at the speed of light, or at the speed very very very close to the light, there's NOTHING USEFUL to talk about distance and time any more, and thus there's also nothing useful to attach any rest frame to it, because basically they (distance and time) don't exist any more. They are zero and not useful.