Planck's radiation law: is a quantum-classical perspective possible?

F E Irons

In deriving his radiation law in 1900, Max Planck employed a simple harmonic oscillator to model the exchange of energy between radiation and matter. Traditionally the harmonic oscillator has been viewed as modelling an entity which is itself oscillating, although a suitable oscillating entity has not been forthcoming. (Opinion is divided between a material oscillator, an imaginary oscillator and a need to revise Planck"s derivation to apply to cavity modes of oscillation). We offer a novel, atomistic interpretation of Planck"s derivation wherein the harmonic oscillator models a transition between the internal quantum states of an atom|not a normal electronic atom characterised by possible energies 0 and hv , but an atom populated by subatomic bosons (such as pions) and characterised by multiple occupancy of quantum states and possible energies nhv ( n = 0;1;2; :::). We show how Planck"s derivation can be varied to accommodate electronic atoms. A corollary to the atomistic interpretation is that Planck"s derivation can no longer be construed as support for the postulate that material oscillating entities can have only those energies that are multiples of hv .

Yakir Aharonov, David L. Falkoff, E. C. Lerner +1 more

Y. Aharonov

O. A. Senatchin

The idea about a quantum nature of Planck's blackbody radiation law is deeply rooted in minds of most physicists. Einstein's work, in which the coefficients of spontaneous and induced emission were introduced, has always been regarded as a proof that quantum energy discreteness of an atom plays a crucial role in the derivation of this law. In our paper we avoid this standpoint. It may be shown that the de Broglie wave assigned to every material particle is a result of interaction of the particle with zero-point vibrations of electromagnetic ground field. The energetic spectrum of a harmonic oscillator is obtained from this fact within classical physics which coincides with the quantum result. Thus, it is explained here how the energy discreteness came into existence in stochastic electrodynamics (SED) --- the classical electrodynamics with classical electromagnetic zero-point radiation. Next we reconsider the Einstein work from the viewpoint of SED and derive the Planck formula.

Tareq Ahmed Mokhiemer

The Planck’s law of blackbody radiation is derived in several methods in this paper. The original Planck’s derivation in his 1900 paper, the derivation by Einstein, and another derivation based on the Bose-Einstein statistics are reviewed with comments on each derivation. Statistical properties of radiation are briefly reviewed in the second part of the paper. Different concepts of photon statistics are applied on the thermal (chaotic) light and laser light. Nonclassical properties of light that manifest its quantum nature are briefly highlighted with a short review of the experimental evidence embodied in ……….. 1-Introduction and historical perspective It was Robert Kirchhoff who first argued in 1859 that the thermal radiation of the blackbody was of a fundamental nature.1 Since that time, several attempts were made to derive a precise relation that matches the experimental results. Wien, suggested that the radiation density per

Albert Einstein