Bohr's Quanrum Condition and the de Broglie Wave

Carlton W. Berenda, Southwestern Philosophical Society

Jean Bricmont

Marek Suder

This paper presents a geometric and wave interpretation of energy quantization in the hydrogen atom, based on the de Broglie closure condition of the electron wave in a circular orbit. In this concept, energy quantization is a secondary phenomenon resulting from the fact that the electron wave in each orbit consists of exactly n full periods, and the transition to level n+1 corresponds to the addition of one full period. Combining the wave condition with the classical equilibrium of the Coulomb and centripetal forces leads to values of the orbital radii and a discrete energy spectrum consistent with solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom. It is shown that energy quantization can be interpreted as a consequence of the resonant nature of the electron's wave nature and the condition of phase uniqueness after a complete orbit around the nucleus.1 The model under consideration is semiclassical in nature and serves as an intuitive representation of known results from quantum mechanics. It is assumed that the allowable states correspond to configurations in which the de Broglie wave forms a standing wave containing an integer number of full periods around the orbital circumference. This condition leads directly to the quantization of angular momentum according to the Bohr model. The waveband model provides a one-dimensional analogy of the full quantum description and can serve as a teaching tool to facilitate understanding the geometric aspects of energy quantization in the hydrogen atom. It demonstrates that energy quantization is a natural consequence of the standing wave geometry and the addition of successive full periods along the orbit as the system transitions to the next energy eigenstate after activation. The electron is a stable eigenstate of a quantum field whose behavior in bound systems can be geometrically interpreted as the self-resonance of a de Broglie wave satisfying the condition of single-valent phase, rather than as a local particle with a classical trajectory. Self-resonance of a wave means that the condition of single-valent phase of the wave function after a complete orbit around the nucleus is satisfied, i.e., the requirement that the phase change be an integer multiple of 2π; this is equivalent to the Bohr–de Broglie condition for the closure of the de Broglie wave.

Vera Matarese

Xiao En Wang

In recent years, it has been recognized that treatment of the spectral problem should be associated with closed orbits. This paper proves that the closed orbit obtained by Bohr using numerical algebraic equation is reasonable both mathematically and physically and that the de Broglie wavelength of the electron in the hydrogen atom is equal to the circumference of its orbit. By Bohr model and de Broglie’s matter-wave thought, some quantization conditions, electronic transition formulae, a mechanism and details of emitting photon wave train, a filling order of electrons in the periodic table, and Madelung rule have been deduced theoretically. We solve the Löwdin’s challenge problem.

Philip R. Wallace