Quantum Field Description of Atomic Waves

F. Selleri

V. I. Romanenko, Udovitska Olena, Леонід Петрович Яценко

We apply Monte Carlo wave function method and classical mechanics to description of the atomic motion in the field of laser radiation. Simultaneous use of quantum and classical mechanics for description of inner and translational motion avoids quantization of the translational degrees of freedom. The calculation are carried out for the example of atomic motion in the field of counter-propagating laser waves, one of which repeats the other. It is shown that such scheme of the atom-field interaction leads to confinement of atoms and their cooling by the same laser beams for proper the atom-field interaction parameters. The cases of laser pulses, bichromatic waves and stochastic field (the model of coloured noise) are analyzed.

Ole Keller

Elements of a new quantum electrodynamic theory which might enable one to obtain a better understanding of the linear and nonlinear interaction between atomic systems in near-field contact is presented. To follow the space-time dynamics in the atomic near-field zone an electromagnetic propagator formalism with polychromatic photons is constructed. A first-quantized description based on the photon energy wave function for free polychromatic photons is extended in such a manner that the birth process of the photon, which takes place in the near-field zone of the source, can be followed. In order to be able to describe harmonic generation processes in near-field optics polychromatic photons of the simple wave-train type are used. The wave mechanical (first-quantized) description based on wave-train photons is upgraded to a field-theoretic (second-quantized) formalism using a new so-called propagator gauge which is closely related to the Poincaré gauge underlying the multipole description of quantum electrodynamics.

B.T. Geylikman

Anthony Craig Fischer-Cripps

The new quantum theory was a mathematical description of the way in which an electron behaves when bounded by some kind of potential – such as being in an electric field, acting as a harmonic oscillator or simply being confined to a certain area of space. This mathematical description was then interpreted to be a description of the electron as being probabilistic. It was Schrödinger’s wave equation, together with de Broglie’s concept of a matter wave, that led to various important concepts like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, an explanation of the emission and absorption of photons in atoms, quantum tunnelling and so on. This chapter explains what Schrödinger did – the marriage of waves and particles.

Zhao Guo-qiu