Atoms and Energy

Pieter Kok

S. Venkatesan

Classical subatomic particles simulations were applied to protons, neutrons and electrons to simulate a complete atom using pseudo potentials to simulate nucleus and electrons distributed around nucleus. Molecular dynamics algorithms were applied to subatomic particles to simulate a complete atom for Hydrogen, Carbon and Uranium atoms that were reported in previous studies. Further analysis of energies of Carbon atom reveals that atom has quantized discrete energy values rather than continuous energies as expected in classical simulations. Changes in atom's total energy were observed to be in step changes going to higher/lower energy states and energy values are observed to be in quantized rather than continuous. Electrons energy profiles was observed during the atom's quantum energy shifts and only one electron got affected that has step change in its energies, for short duration, leaving other electrons unaffected. To observe similar phenomenon in other atoms, Fluorine, Magnesium and Chlorine atom were considered in this study and found to have similar quantized discrete energy values properties. This study implements subatomic particles simulations using classical mechanics that explains why atom's energies are quantized in nature as observed in discrete lines in atomic emission/absorption spectrum for atoms.

Amit Goswami

S. Venkatesan

Classical subatomic particle simulations were applied to protons, neutrons, and electrons to simulate an individual atom using pseudo-potentials to simulate the nucleus and electrons distributed around the nucleus. We applied molecular dynamics algorithms to subatomic particles to simulate complete atoms of Hydrogen, Carbon, and Uranium, as reported in our previous studies. Investigation of the Carbon atoms energy as a function of time reveals quantised, discrete energy values rather than the continuous energies expected in classical simulations. Changes in an atoms total energy were found to occur in discrete steps as it transitionsto higher/lower energy states, and the energy values are observed to be quantised rather than continuous. Further analysis examined individual electron energies to determine how electrons behave during an atoms quantum energy shifts. Only one electrons energy profile had undergone a step change, leaving the other five electrons unaffected in a Carbon atom. To study the energy quantisation property in other atoms, the Fluorine, Magnesium, and Chlorine atoms were considered and found to exhibit similar quantised, discrete energy properties. The energy quantisation property of an individual atom was already accounted for in classical mechanics/models. This study uses classicalmechanics simulations of subatomic particles to investigate why atomic energies are quantised in nature, as observed in discrete lines in atomic emission/absorption spectra.

Bill Grubbs

Thomas F. Gallagher

Resonant energy transfer collisions, those in which one atom or molecule transfers only internal energy, as oppposed to translational energy, to its collision partner require a precise match of the energy intervals in the two collision partners. Because of this energy specificity, resonant collisional energy transfer plays an important role in many laser applications, the He–Ne and CO 2 lasers being perhaps the best known examples. It is interesting to imagine an experiment in which we can tune the energy of the excited state of atom B through the energy of the excited state of atom A, as shown in Fig. 14.1. At resonance we would expect the cross section for collisionally transferring the energy from an excited A atom to a ground state B atom to increase sharply as shown in Fig. 14.1. In general, atomic and molecular energy levels are fixed, and the situation of Fig. 14.1 is impossible to realize. Nonetheless systematic studies of resonant energy transfer have been carried out by altering the collision partner, showing the importance of resonance in collisional energy transfer. The use of atomic Rydberg states, which have series of closely spaced levels, presents a natural opportunity for the study of resonant collisional energy transfer. One of the earliest experiments was the observation of resonant rotational to electronic energy transfer from NH 3 to Xe Rydberg atoms by Smith et al .