The quantum mechanical description of microscopic phenomena treats minuscule particles as waves and explains why atoms and molecules absorb and emit radiation at particular frequencies. This article reviews the physical theory of waves and discusses similarities between atoms and musical instruments. In particular, it describes how we may identify new musical scales and harmonies and play atomic music by translating and scaling the frequencies in the atomic world to the audible spectrum.
The quantum mechanical description of microscopic phenomena treats minuscule particles as waves and explains why atoms and molecules absorb and emit radiation at particular frequencies. This article reviews the physical theory of waves and discusses similarities between atoms and musical instruments. In particular, it describes how we may identify new musical scales and harmonies and play atomic music by translating and scaling the frequencies in the atomic world to the audible spectrum.
The absorbed/emitted radiation will be treated classically, as a monochromatic plane wave, whereas the atomic system that can absorb/emit such radiation will be described quantum-mechanically. However, no incident radiation beam is needed, and the atom “falls down” after a certain time interval to the ground state without any external reason. In the spontaneous emission processes the emitting atom can be thought of as a classical oscillating dipole, whose amplitude decreases due to the energy loss through the radiation. If an ensemble of identical atoms is considered and if, for simplicity, each atom emits radiation with the same spectral shape and full width at half maximum, it is impossible to ascribe a definite spectral component with intensity to a definite atom. In this case, such a broadening is identical for all atoms in the ensemble. On the microscopic scale, absorption of radiation is reduced to the transitions between pairs of energy levels of a discrete atomic spectrum.
In this book we treat the interaction of radiation with matter with special application to gain (amplifying) media typically existing in lasers. Tradition ally the interaction of radiation with matter is treated in terms of the index of refraction and the absorption of light, utilizing the model of electrons on springs. In Chap. 3 we show that this model is reasonable for some linear absorbing systems but is very awkward, if not outright unworkable, for a microscopic description of gain media. The essential failure of the electron-spring model is its difficulty in yielding net stimulated emission (and therefore gain) for an ensemble of systems.t In contrast, a more physically sound, quantum treatment of matter provides for the concept of population inversion and explains stimulated emission in a natural way. Hence from the very start we are compelled to base our understanding of the interaction of radiation with matter on a quantum-mechanical description of atoms. In Chaps. 1-13 a classical field interacts with quantum-mechanical atoms; in the remainder of the book, both field and atoms are treated quantum mechani cally.
Motivated by a revision of the classical equations of electromagnetism that allow for the inclusion of solitary waves in the solution space, the material collected in these notes examines the consequences of adopting the modified model in the description of atomic structures. The possibility of handling "photons" in a deterministic way opens indeed a chance for reviewing the foundations of quantum physics. Atoms and molecules are described as aggregations of nuclei and electrons joined through organized photon layers resonating at various frequencies, explaining how matter can absorb or emit light quanta. Some established viewpoints are subverted, offering an alternative scenario. The analysis seeks to provide an answer to many technical problems in physical chemistry and, at the same time, to raise epistemological questions.
Quantum mechanics is a theory to explain and predict the behavior of particles such as electrons, protons, neutrons, atomic nuclei, atoms, and molecules, as well as the photon–the particle associated with electromagnetic radiation or light. From quantum theory we obtain the laws of chemistry as well as explanations for the properties of materials, such as crystals, semiconductors, superconductors, and superfluids. Applications of quantum behavior give us transistors, computer chips, lasers, and masers. The relatively new field of molecular biology, which leads to our better understanding of biological structures and life processes, derives from quantum considerations. Thus, quantum behavior encompasses a large fraction of modern science and technology. Quantum theory was developed during the first half of the twentieth century through the efforts of many scientists. In 1926, E. Schrödinger interjected wave mechanics into the array of ideas, equations, explanations, and theories that were prevalent at the time to explain the growing accumulation of observations of quantum phenomena. His theory introduced the wave function and the differential wave equation that it obeys. Schrödinger's wave mechanics is now the backbone of our current conceptional understanding and our mathematical procedures for the study of quantum phenomena. Our presentation of the basic principles of quantum mechanics is contained in the first three chapters. Chapter 1 begins with a treatment of plane waves and wave packets, which serves as background material for the subsequent discussion of the wave function for a free particle.
Motivated by a revision of the classical equations of electromagnetism that allow for the inclusion of solitary waves in the solution space, the material collected in these notes examines the consequences of adopting the modified model in the description of atomic structures. The possibility of handling "photons" in a deterministic way opens indeed a chance for reviewing the foundations of quantum physics. Atoms and molecules are described as aggregations of nuclei and electrons joined through organized photon layers resonating at various frequencies, explaining how matter can absorb or emit light quanta. Some established viewpoints are subverted, offering an alternative scenario. The analysis seeks to provide an answer to many technical problems in physical chemistry and, at the same time, to raise epistemological questions.
This chapter discusses the dual nature of small particles, focusing on electrons. It begins by describing how the classical laws of physics, which were mostly established by the start of the twentieth century, did not work very well when applied on the atomic scale. In order to explain the atomic-scale phenomena, a new kind of physics was invented in the 1920s. This new physics was called quantum physics, or quantum mechanics. It applied to the world on the scale of the atom—the microscopic world, or microworld. The discussions then turn to an experiment involving ‘quantum’ coins; the difference between superposition state and mixed state; light, waves, and interference; and interference with electrons.