Waves and Quanta: Preludes to Wave Mechanics

Ana Marı́a Cetto, Luis de la Peña

J. C. Slater

Light quanta are treated by wave mechanics by analogy with electrons. It is shown that their wave equation is the ordinary optical wave equation. Heisenberg's principle of indeterminateness becomes a description of diffraction. In problems in which localization of quanta is found experimentally, wave packets are to be set up; these are applied to the experiments of Bothe and Geiger, and of Compton. The paths of quanta coincide with the rays of geometrical optics, with a deviation of the error in geometrical optics; by the principle of indeterminateness, more accurate laws for the paths are neither necessary nor possible.

Ahmad Amer

This chapter provides a historical prelude to the development of quantum theory, highlighting the conceptual challenges posed by its foundational axioms. In contrast to the typical approach of starting from axioms and deriving theorems and definitions, the chapter emphasizes that the axioms of quantum mechanics are not intuitively accessible to beginners due to their disconnect from classical reasoning and everyday experience. To bridge this gap, a chronological overview of the experimental discoveries and theoretical advances that led to the formulation of quantum theory is presented. Metadata/Keywords: black body radiation, photoelectric effect, Compton effect, atom, De Broglie waves, Heisenberg uncertainty principle, Bohr's correspondence principle

Charles E. Burkhardt, Jacob J. Leventhal

Larry Lim Kheng Cheong

Logica Quanta II introduces the missing physical mechanism underlying discrete quantum outcomes: accumulated wave interference. Building on Logica Quanta I, which reframed modern physics as interacting waves rather than particles, this paper identifies history as the absent variable in standard quantum mechanics. While conventional formulations treat collapse as instantaneous and memoryless, many physical systems—from tunneling barriers to decohering environments—experience sustained wave–environment coupling over time. This work argues that interference is not merely instantaneous but accumulates, producing a form of wave stress analogous to material fatigue. When accumulated interference exceeds a stability threshold, collapse-like transitions occur naturally, without randomness, observers, or duality. The concept is developed at the level of physical logic rather than formal mathematics, positioning accumulated interference as a measurable state variable compatible with quantum mechanics, decoherence theory, and known experimental platforms. Logica Quanta II serves as the mechanistic bridge between conceptual reinterpretation (Logica Quanta I) and experimental falsification (Logica Quanta III).