The Concept of Quantum State: New Views on old Phenomena

Aleksander Leonidovich Simanov

Michael G. Littman, E. Gordis, Pavel Zhelnin +1 more

Solutions of Schrödinger's equation for Rydberg states of hydrogen are shown to display patterns that can be understood semi-classically within the framework of Bohr-Sommerfeld planetary orbits and de Broglie's concept of matter waves. Using n = 10 and n = 100 quantum levels we show how de Broglie-wave-analyzed Kepler orbits can be matched to excited-state wavefunctions and charge distributions. Making the connection between the old and new quantum theories can help beginning students develop an intuition about quantum mechanics and allow them to develop an appreciation of how Schrödinger's wave mechanics was stimulated by the theories of his predecessors.

David Hodgson

Jiqing Zeng

In this paper, the problems existing in the concepts of Planck's energy element and Einstein's light quantum are analyzed, and new concepts of quantum and electronic transition power are proposed. The new concept of quantum eliminates the inherent contradiction of the old quantum concept, and can explain the structure and spectral phenomena of hydrogen atom and photoelectric effect completely on the basis of classical physics without Bohr's "quantization hypothesis". The new concept of quantum breaks the gap between macro and micro, eliminates the contradiction between "classical physics" and "quantum mechanics", and lays an important foundation for the reconstruction of unified macro and micro physics.

Jonathan Allday

From a historical point of view, a distinction can be drawn between ‘old quantum theory’ and the full quantum theory that we now use. Old quantum theory was in essence a patchwork, cobbled together by incorporating some quantum ideas into essentially classical physics. The work of Planck, Einstein, Bohr, and Sommerfeld can be bracketed as old quantum theory. This classification is not meant to undermine the tremendous achievement that old quantum theory represents, but simply to underline its standing as a stage on the way to a fully formed quantum theory, which emerged from the work of Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Born, and Dirac. The development of the photon concept is a key example of a radically new idea gradually gaining acceptance. The process works via a growing realization that more and more things can be explained in the context of the photon model.

S. Malin