COULD THE PHOTON BE A SOLITON?
Electromagnetic radiation at radio wavelengths is clearly a wave. If there is a “particle” model of radio waves, please explain it to me! On the other end of the EM spectrum, e.g., x-rays and gamma-rays, EM radiation appears more particle-like as the frequencies get higher.
Could it be that as the frequency of EM radiation gets ever higher (shorter wavelengths) the radiation becomes more solitonic? Solitons are observed in nature. They are wave phenomena but they can be a single-peaked wave or a short, compressed wave train.
By analogy, think of the gravitational waves discovered by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration. Clearly the GWs are waves, but if the resolution of the observations were considerably lower, we might mistake these tiny wave packets as “particles”. [aside: gravitons are a total myth]
Wave-particle duality does not seem to apply very well in the case on long wavelength EM radiation like radio waves, or even visible light. A more inclusive understanding of EM radiation that incorporates solitons, in their variety of forms, might offer a more unified understanding of EM radiation. This might even explain the double-slit experiments without the usual smoke and mirrors.