States, Waves and Photons: A Modern Introduction to Light

Joseph Simmons, Mark J. Guttmann

Luca Salasnich

W.T. Welford

Edward R. Pike

J W Simmons and M J Guttmann London: Addison-Wesley 1970 pp xi + 219 price £4.65 In the preface the authors remark 'Although other choices are possible, our method of presenting the material (for an upper level undergraduate course in optics) may be of interest'. Their presentation, it must be said, is interesting; one does not often come upon a book in which convention is so thoroughly ignored.

Yanhua H. Shih

The quantum theory of light began in the early 20th century. The successful introduction of the concept of photon, or light quantum, stimulated a new foundation of physics, namely, the quantum theory. Today, quantum theory has turned out to be the overarching principle of modern physics. It would be difficult to find a single subject among the physical sciences which is not affected in its foundations or in its applications by quantum theory. The photon is a wave: it has no mass, it travels at the highest speed in the universe, and it interferes with itself. The photon is a particle: it has well-defined values of momentum and energy, and it even “spins” like a particle. Around the year of 1900, an unexpected observation happened in experimental physics. It was found that the experimentally observed spectral distribution of blackbody radiation disagreed with the theoretical predications of classical physics.

Edwin Goldin, Mark A. Lieber