A New Look at Light

J. J. Thomson

Henry R. Kreider, E. F. Burton, Walter H. Kohl

electron miscroscope is a typical, practical by-product of the most recent developments in theoretical physics, namely, the conclusion that both radiation and matter must be looked upon as having each a dual character: a wave property and a corpuscular discreteness. A perusal of the table which follows shows that as new properties of natural phenomena reveal themselves in our experiments our theories of what is happening must be revamped to fit new experiences. The attempt to produce a satisfactory theory of natural phenomena is just an attempt on our part to imagine a machine which, working according to the laws of machines familiar to us in this workaday world, will accomplish what really happens in nature. For example, when Dr. Thomas Young in 1800 showed that interference and diffraction of light could be explained by supposing that light is a wave motion in some medium pervading all space, the wave theory of light won general acceptance. In these days, however, in order to provide a satisfactory mechanical model for light we must be prepared to look upon it, on occasion, as a wave motion in space and, on occasion, as a stream of corpuscles. A completely analagous statement may be made regarding an electron. In order to provide a satisfactory mechanical model for the electron we must be prepared to look upon it, on occasion, as a wave motion in space and, on occasion, as a corpuscle, a small material particle of mass 9x1 o28 grams and bearing a negative charge equal to 1.6 x io19 coulombs.

James W. Robinson

Adriano Barenco, M.‐A. Dupertuis

Many quantum states of light and matter, such as coherent states, squeezed states, minimum-uncertainty states, intelligent states, quasi-intelligent states, and symmetric states, have long been of academic interest.1 However, because of the success in realizing and using light squeezing in feasibility experiments, attention is now turning to the realization of more practical light sources. In this paper we adopt a new constructive procedure to look for new states of matter that may eventually permit the generation of squeezed light from new types of advanced semiconductor light sources.

E. Lommel

J. E. Colwell, Adrienne Dove, James Cooney

Light's odd way of behaving both like a particle and a wave is nothing new, but a cool new experiment shows that it's not an either/or but a continuum of gradations from wave to particle. The universe has some crazy stuff going on. We use the wave nature to take a look at an odd transient phenomenon at the core of the Milky Way and for Top quark to embarrass Strange quark at trivia.