Clarification on Photon Mass and Energy Transfer in Atomic Absorption:

Photons are gauge bosons, not made of quarks, so they do not have rest mass. When a photon is absorbed by an electron in an atom, it transfers its energy to the electron, but the photon itself ceases to exist in its original form. However, the photon always remains as energy, even though it doesn't have mass in the traditional sense. A phonon, which is a quasiparticle representing quantized vibrations in a lattice, is also distinct from photons and doesn't have mass either.

Key Clarifications:

• Photon and mass: While photons have no rest mass, they do carry energy and momentum, which are related to their frequency and wavelength.
• Phonon: Phonons are not the same as photons. They are quasi-particles arising from lattice vibrations in a material and also do not have rest mass, but they are fundamentally different from photons.