At least the photon bit is not true, photons have both energy and momentum. if a photon spontaneously decay there is nothing to carry the momentum forward nor the mass that would have to be created. Two photons can collide dead on and cancel each others momentum creating a particle that converts energy to mass, but the odds of two photons having the right amount of energy and momentum that it can happen is appreciably rare, so rare in fact that its only believed to have happened in the very earliest moments of the universe, niether a situation that is observed or can be implicitly confirmed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-photon_physics