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The Many Versus the One

David Lindley

Published May 1, 2008• 0 citations
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Abstract

Electrons can act like light waves in many ways, but according to recent experiments, their wave-like effects don’t always correspond with light. The unexpected behavior occurs because electrons feel each other’s presence, while photons do not.
DOI
10.1103/physrevfocus.21.17

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At the atomic scale, the distinction between particles and waves breaks down. The realization, early in the twentieth century, that light consists of discrete packages, or “photons,” prompted the converse suggestion that particles could behave like waves. Confirmation of this idea came in 1927, from an experiment involving the scattering of electrons from a crystal. Today, “wave-particle duality” is central to quantum mechanics, and the wave properties of subatomic particles are widely used in microscopy and crystallography. Electron diffraction techniques are widely used to characterize atomic arrangements on solid surfaces and inside thin films, and to investigate the structures of molecules in gases. The dual nature of waves and particles is part of the “spookiness” of quantum mechanics, which cannot be explained in any classical way. It used to be that one could only imagine an experiment that would simultaneously demonstrate the particle and wave nature of electrons.
Wave-particle duality of light has dumbfounded physical scientists for centuries. Sir Isaac Newton contended that light was made up of individual particles while Hooke (who was utterly despised by Newton) wrote on the wave-like properties of light.[6] In 1801, Thomas Young’s double slit experiment demonstrated wavelike properties of light. In 1905, Einstein revisited the theory of light acting as a particle to resolve conflicts between the wave theory of light and certain experimental results such as the photoelectric effect.[11] Experiments confirming particle-like properties of light were not realized until later in the 20th century. In 1981, Grangier, Roger and Aspect published a paper titled Experimental Evidence for a Photon Anticorrelation Effect on a Beam Splitter: A New Light on Single-Photon Interferences. This paper reported on one of the first successful anticoincidence experiments which measured the particle-like behavior of light. The paper also reported on an experiment that used the same source and detection scheme as the anticoincidence experiment, which measured interference. Grangier, Roger and Aspect eloquently depicted the conundrum of the waveparticle duality of light. To what extent does this this complementary nature of light exist? How does light know when to display wave-like or particle-like properties? One popular answer to this was that light can ‘sense’ what the experiment is attempting to measure. Based on the initial ‘feel,’ light would decide whether or not it will display wave-like or particle-like behavior before entering the experiment. This hypothesis is aptly named the conspiracy theory.[2]
A new approach to the physical axiomatic of quantum mechanics is proposed. The basis of this approach is the rejection of the idea of an electron as a point particle. To describe the dynamics of the material substance of the electron, a new AMT (Action-Matter-Transfer) equation based on the Hamilton-Jacobi equation is proposed. This nonlinear equation simply transforms into the Schrödinger equation which becomes an intermediate step for solving a more general equation that describes the actual mass and charge density of an electron cloud. The dimensionless density of the material substance of the electron is equal to the square of the wave function. The nonlinearity of the AMT-equation make us question the validity of the quantum mechanical principle of superposition. The representation of an electron as a cloud with a distributed density helps to explain the interference effects in the well-known double-slit experiment. It is shown that light emission can occur in full accordance with classical electrodynamics when the material substance of an electron is spatially redistributed. Our approach makes it possible to interpret light as a chain of photons, each of which represents a “particle” of an electromagnetic wave propagating in space. The direction of radiation can be determined by the axis of rotation of the electron cloud due to the presence of the spin which turns the electron into elementary magnet, so the two electron clouds can form in an atom a stable structure of paired electrons in the form of two hemispheres rotating in one direction. In the framework of the quasi-classical concept of photon generation, the processes of reflection of light, its transmission through a transparent medium, and birefringence are discussed as well as Compton effect and laser emission.