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An analysis of classical radiation from single particle quantum currents

Mark P. Davidson

Published Sep 10, 2002• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Classical electromagnetic radiation from quantum currents and charge densities are calculated. For the Schrodinger equation it's found, somewhat surprisingly, that the free charged particle does not radiate at all, and that when there are forces acting on the particle the Larmor result is obtained as a first approximation. For the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations it is found that radiation is suppressed at lower frequencies. Implications of these results are discussed.

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Classical electromagnetic radiation from quantum currents and charge densities are calculated. For the Schrodinger equation it's found, somewhat surprisingly, that the free charged particle does not radiate at all, and that when there are forces acting on the particle the Larmor result is obtained as a first approximation. For the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations it is found that radiation is suppressed at lower frequencies. Implications of these results are discussed.
Classical electromagnetic radiation from quantum currents and densities are calculated. For the free Schrodinger equation with no external force it's found that the classical radiation is zero to all orders of the multipole expansion. This is true of mixed or pure states for the charged particle. It is a non-trivial and surprising result. A similar result is found for the Klein-Gordon currents when the wave function consists of only positive energy solutions. For the Dirac equation it is found that radiation is suppressed at lower frequencies but is not zero at all frequencies. Implications of these results for the interpretation of quantum mechanics are discussed.
This tutorial begins with the relationship of source-free classical electromagnetism to ultra-relativistic free-photon quantum mechanics. The linear transformation of the source-free classical-electromagnetic real-valued transverse vector potential to its corresponding free-photon Schroedinger-equation complex-valued transverse vector wave function is obtained. It is then pointed out that despite the free-photon Klein-Gordon equation's being formally identical to the source-free classical-electromagnetic vector-potential wave equation, it yields not only free-photon Schroedinger-equation wave functions but also their complex conjugates, which don't satisfy the free-photon Schroedinger equation. This is a consequence of admitting complex-valued solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation -- of course only its real-valued solutions apply to the classical vector potential. It is pointed out that solutions of the free-particle Dirac equation likewise occur in conjugate pairs, and that its Hamiltonian operator implies a variety of unphysical consequences, e.g., any Dirac free particle's speed is that of light times the square root of three.
It is proved by a functional method that the conventional expression for the Dirac current is the only conserved 4-vector implied by the Dirac equation that is a function of just the quantum state. The demonstration is extended to derive the unique conserved currents implied by the coupled Maxwell-Dirac equations and the Klein-Gordon equation. The uniqueness of the usual Pauli and Schrödinger currents follows by regarding these as the non-relativistic limits of the Dirac and Klein-Gordon currents, respectively. The existence and properties of further conserved vectors that are not functions of just the state is examined.
Abstract 1. The procedure usually adopted in the Quantum Theory for the estimation of the intensities of a spectrum line includes two stages : (1) the electric moment, p, of the distribution responsible for the spectrum line is calculated by means of Schrodinger’s integrals or some equivalent method ; (2) the rate of loss of energy due to radiation is calculated by the classical formula due to H. Hertz, viz., 2p2/3c3, just as if the distribution were concentrated in a dipole of precisely the same moment p. The first stage involves no difficulties beyond those met with in the evaluation of the integrals or matrices with which we are concerned, the only principles needed being those of the particular quantum theory adopted. But the second stage is open to grave objections and can only be justified on the ground of necessity owing to the absence of any completely satisfactory quantum theory of the electromagnetic field. Sometimes an appeal is made to Bohr’s Correspondence Principle, but this itself involves a somewhat hazardous extrapolation from infinitely large down to small quantum numbers and cannot take the place of a rigorous calculation. A logically consistent method is possible, based on Maxwell’s theory as represented by his electromagnetic equations and their solutions in terms of the classical retarded potential integrals. It may be objected that we do not know how far Maxwell’s equations can be applied to the interiors of atoms, in particular to distributions like those of Schrodinger, but precisely the same objection applies to the customary use of the classical expression for the radiation from an oscillating dipole. Moreover, the attempts made by Heisenberg and Pauli, Dirac and others to formulate a quantum theory of the electromagnetic field have all been based on the assumption that such a theory must be consistent with Maxwell’s equations. The direct application of the methods of classical electromagnetic theory to Schrodinger’s distributions can be justified at least as a rigorous attempt to determine their electromagnetic field and the radiation from them, and the validity of the procedure will have to be judged by the agreement, or otherwise, of the results obtained with experience. In this way we avoid the assumption that a spatially extended distribution can be treated as if its electric moment were concentrated in a point; in fact, the results obtained in this paper for the more important spectrum line series show definitely that the assumption is false, because it leads to results in many cases quite inconsistent with a rigorous application of Maxwell’s theory.
In our preceding treatments of the interaction of radiation with matter, we assumed that the electric field is classical. In most cases, this assumption is validated by experiment. There are several instances, however, for which a classical field fails to give experimentally observed results, whereas a quantized field succeeds. This is true, for example, of spontaneous emission, a phenom­ enon which was described phenomenologically in our earlier work (see Chaps. 2 and 7). Another case involves the 2 and 2p \ states in the hydrogen atom, which are predicted to have the same energy not only by the simple theory of Chap. 1, but also by the more sophisticated Dirac theory. In both cases, a classical electric field was assumed. Experimentally, the two levels differ by approximately the Lamb shift, 1057 MHz. A fully quantized treatment of the field and atom system gives impressive agreement with the experimentally observed shift. Derivation of the fluctuations in intensity of a laser near threshold requires the quantum theory o f radiation. In addition there are other problems for which the concept of a “particle,” the photon, is either necessary or convenient. Despite a popular impression to the contrary, however the explanation of the photoelectric effect is not one of these (see Prob. 2-10).
By shifting the emphasis from the concept of trajectory to the concept of probability density it is possible to incorporate the uncertainty principle into classical mechanics. This amendment in the nonrelativistic classical theory is sufficient to derive the Schrödinger equation for a general potential. In order to show that the approach has general validity it is necessary to show that it can be generalized to the classical relativistic dynamics. In this paper it is shown how this generalization is achieved for a free particle, and as a result the Dirac instead of the Klein–Gordon equation is obtained. It is shown that the spin and the magnetic moment of charged particles are classical in character because their correct values are calculated as the averages over the classical (relativistic) phase space density, subject to the constraint imposed by the uncertainty principle. Since the Dirac equation has direct connection to the classical (relativistic) dynamics the problem of the positive and negative energy states is discussed.