Radiation Transition Probabilities and Radiation Kinetics in Kramers’ Electrodynamics

Yu. M. Golubev

Daniel Scretching

This paper develops and verifies a physics-first description of the hydrogen-atom transition from the L shell (n = 2) to the K shell (n = 1) by combining the historical Bohr model of atomic structure with classical Maxwell electrodynamics. Beginning with the Coulomb force, centripetal dynamics, and Bohr’s angular-momentum quantization condition, the analysis derives the allowed orbital radii, electron velocities, angular momenta, kinetic energies, electrostatic potential energies, and total bound-state energies of the hydrogen atom. For the n = 2 → n = 1 transition, the calculated energy difference is approximately 10.2 eV, corresponding through the Planck–Einstein relation ΔE = hν to a frequency of approximately 2.47 × 10¹⁵ Hz and a wavelength near 121.6 nm, consistent with the hydrogen Lyman-α transition. The emitted radiation is then examined through Maxwell’s equations and the vacuum constitutive relations. The resulting electromagnetic-wave description yields the transverse electric and magnetic fields together with the associated electromagnetic energy density, Poynting energy flux, momentum density, radiation pressure, and Maxwell stress tensor. In this way, the atomic energy difference obtained from the Bohr model is connected quantitatively to the classical propagation properties of the outgoing electromagnetic radiation. The derivation is mathematically consistent as a historical Bohr–Maxwell reconstruction, but it does not constitute a closed dynamical theory of spontaneous emission. The essential bridge between discrete atomic energy levels and the continuous Maxwell field is supplied by the quantum frequency condition ΔE = hν. Neither classical Maxwell electrodynamics nor Newtonian orbital mechanics independently derives this relation, and classical Maxwell theory does not by itself quantize the emitted radiation energy into individual photons. A complete treatment of spontaneous emission, transition probabilities, radiative lifetimes, and photon-field quantization requires quantum mechanics and ultimately quantum electrodynamics. Accordingly, the framework is presented as a verified correspondence between established limiting descriptions rather than as a replacement for Schrödinger wave mechanics, Dirac theory, or quantum electrodynamics. By clearly separating the atomic bound-state calculation, the quantum energy-frequency bridge, and the classical electromagnetic propagation problem, the analysis provides a rigorous conceptual and mathematical foundation for subsequent Maxwell–Schrödinger, Dirac–Maxwell, quantum-electrodynamic, Maxwell–Scretching, and Scretching Quantum Chain formulations of hydrogenic radiative transitions.

Laurent Amour, Lisette Jager, Jean Nourrigat

In this article, we are interested in a spin model including the quantized electromagnetic field (photons). With this model of quantum electrodynamics (QED) related to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) we give explicit quantum radiative corrections of the time evolution for the spin observables, for the electric and magnetic fields observables and for the photon number observable. As a by-product, this underlines that Bloch equations are the semiclassical limit of the model in QED considered here. In addition, transition probabilities for the same model are investigated.

Masamoto Takatsuji

Jean Dalibard

We derive a kinetic equation describing the motion of slow atoms in a light wave. This equation is of the Kramers-Fokker-Planck type. The diffusion terms are due to the fluctuations in momentum exchanges between the atom and the field, and the friction term is responsible for radiative cooling. Connections with semi classical approaches to this problem and with usual Brownian motion theory are established.