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An Understanding of the Particle-like Property of Light and Charge

Eric S Reiter Pacifica

Published Mar 1, 2012• 2 citations

Abstract

In an analysis of experiments famous for particle models of light and charge, a non-classical wave model is developed to explain these particle-like properties in terms of waves. The experiments and issues examined include: charge diffraction, charge quantization, photoelectric effect, Compton effect, black body radiation, spin, and antimatter. The model has three postulates: (a) a threshold concept whereby charge, mass, and action are maximums at e, m e , and h respectively, (b) a ratio concept whereby free space measures of e, m e , and h will always reveal themselves in ratios e/m, e/h, or h/m, allowing components of these ratios to individually diminish as the wave spreads while the ratio value remains intact, and (c) an envelope property of the Ψ wave (Schrodinger’s amplitude) whereby the envelope is full and stable with a graphic area of h. The envelope concept is developed by replacing the phase wavelength in de Broglie’s equation with the group length. Some conclusions: Our constants h, e, and m e , can only be independently measured in atoms or collisions where the envelopes are full, but not in free-space diffraction, or in deflection experiments. The particle-like properties of charge are explained with envelopes displacing each other in space as they reach threshold h. Particles of light then become an illusion of these threshold and ratio properties of the charge-wave.

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In an analysis of experiments famous for particle models of light and charge, a non-classical wave model is developed to explain these particle-like properties in terms of waves. The experiments and issues examined include: charge diffraction, charge quantization, photoelectric effect, Compton effect, black body radiation, spin, and antimatter. The model has three postulates: (a) a threshold concept whereby charge, mass, and action are maximums at e, m e , and h respectively, (b) a ratio concept whereby free space measures of e, m e , and h will always reveal themselves in ratios e/m, e/h, or h/m, allowing components of these ratios to individually diminish as the wave spreads while the ratio value remains intact, and (c) an envelope property of the Ψ wave (Schrodinger’s amplitude) whereby the envelope is full and stable with a graphic area of h. The envelope concept is developed by replacing the phase wavelength in de Broglie’s equation with the group length. Some conclusions: Our constants h, e, and m e , can only be independently measured in atoms or collisions where the envelopes are full, but not in free-space diffraction, or in deflection experiments. The particle-like properties of charge are explained with envelopes displacing each other in space as they reach threshold h. Particles of light then become an illusion of these threshold and ratio properties of the charge-wave.

The photoelectric effect, the Compton effects, and now anticorrelation experiments have been claimed to prove that light consists of particles flying through a void. However the particle model is decisively falsified by the known wave qualities of electromagnetic radiation. Quantum Electrodynamics also uses spreading wave amplitudes; not flying particles. The evidence indicates that light is a wave and electrons are electromagnetic wave-structures that absorb and emit light in discrete wave-packets. These wave-quanta are emitted directionally and then spread in space in proportion to their wavelength. Their waves superposition with all other waves in space. In low intensity experiments, the waves that an electron in a photodetector absorbs come from the superpositioning of the source wave-quanta and background radiation. The importance of background radiation is evidenced by "dark counts". Treating electrons and the quanta they absorb and emit as particles when they are composed of waves is the source of all the paradoxes, unreality and confusion in Quantum Mechanics. The word "photon" should be replaced by "quantum" in the description of this particular electronic process. The conceptual model presented here explains the known phenomena without producing paradoxes and unifies quantum and classical electromagnetics.

Classical physics identified matter with particles and radiation with waves. Although these descriptions accounted for a large number of very important facts, it became apparent at the beginning of the twentieth century that other phenomena, such as blackbody radiation and photoelectric effect, are satisfactorily explained only if radiation is described in terms of particles. Louis de Broglie developed a theory according to which, conversely, matter has wave properties. As an outcome of this theory, he was able to write down a formula relating the corresponding wavelength with the momentum of the particle. Diffraction patterns characterize waves, and the basic fact that corroborated the validity of the notion of matter waves was that the Davisson and Germer experiment proved electrons can be diffracted. In classical optics the simplest experiment displaying this phenomenon is the well-known Young two-slit experiment, in which a beam of light is passed through a diaphragm with two slits.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, physicists have known that light must be considered as both a wave and a particle. Some properties of light – such as diffraction – can only be explained by treating it as waves, while others – like the photoelectric effect – can only be explained by treating it as particles. In the 1920s Louis de Broglie suggested that this wave–particle duality, which lies at the heart of the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, could be extended to massive particles. In other words, electrons, atoms and molecules should diffract and interfere just like light does.

Arguments about particles or waves gave way to a recognized need for both particles and waves in the description of radiation. The confusion over particle versus wave properties was resolved by Louis de Broglie. He postulated that since light has a dual wave–particle nature, matter also has this nature. The idea was to perform a diffraction experiment with electrons. An interference pattern was demonstrated not only with electrons, but also with many kinds of material particles like protons and neutrons. However, any attempt to observe an interference pattern with neutral atoms was found difficult by the fact that atoms carried no charge as electrons do and could not penetrate through condensate matter like neutrons. The de Broglie wavelength of an electron in the smallest orbit turns out to be exactly equal to the circumference of the orbit predicted by Bohr. The interpretation of the interference phenomenon becomes more subtle when the light beams are replaced by individual photons or particles.

The Compton effect is commonly cited as a demonstration of the particle feature of light, while the wave nature of matter has been proposed by de Broglie and demonstrated by Davisson and Germer with the Bragg diffraction of electron beams. In this investigation, we present an entirely different interpretation of the Compton effect based on the postulates of de Broglie and on an interaction between electromagnetic and matter waves. The speeds of interacting electrons in the Compton scattering are quite fast and its mechanism relies heavily on the mass variation. Thus, based on this wave interpretation, the Compton effect can be viewed as a further demonstration of the postulates of de Broglie for high-speed particles. In addition to the scattered wave, a direct radiation depending on the mass variation is predicted, which provides a means to test the wave interpretation.

Abstract This chapter examines some crucial experiments and basic principles of quantum mechanics that have strongly influenced the development of quantum theory in its modern form: starting from Planck’s law of black-body radiation and its derivation using the quantization of energy; Einstein’s photon hypothesis for the puzzle presented by the photoelectric effect and its test via the Millikan experiment; the Compton effect; Bohr’s theses for the structure of the hydrogen atom and the complementarity of waves and particles i.e., the wave-particle duality, culminating in de Broglie’s ideas for matter waves and their confirmation in the Davisson-Germer experiment for electron diffraction from a crystal; Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle for position and momentum as well as for energy an time; the famous double-slit experiment and Born’s probability interpretation, and finally the provocative thought experiment of Schrödinger’s cat