[Physics] Gravity between two Photons

gravityphotons

(I searched for an answer online already but I couldn't quite find what I was looking for…)

I thought about this for a long time now. If two Photons fly in the same direction, one behind the other one, for my understanding the one behind the other one should be pulled towards the photon in front of it due to it's gravity, and because it cant get faster it should increase it's frequency and therefore gain energy. The one in front cant be pulled backwards though because gravity travels with the speed of light itself(?) and therefore the gravity of the rear photon cant reach the one infront of it, which would therefore not lose energy.

But that would break the law of conservation of energy, wouldn't it? So I'm confused…

Am I thinking something wrong? Or how does it work/what would actually happen in this scenario?

Thanks for answers in advance!

Best Answer

Each photon will be at rest relative to the other, since they both travel in the same direction at the same speed. A photon at rest has zero frequency, hence zero energy. So, at least to first order, there should be no gravitational interaction between the two photons within their mutual rest frame.

I'm not sure what an outside observer would see. It seems to be accepted that gravitational waves interact with each other very very weakly, which suggests that the same should be true of electromagnetic waves.

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