## tisdag 31 januari 2017

### Radiation as Superposition or Jumping?

This is a continuation of this post on understanding of atomic radiation of frequency $E_2-E_1$ as resonance of "superposition of two eigenstates" of different frequencies $E_2>E_1$ according to realQM.

In the standard view of the Copenhagen Interpretation by Bohr as stdQM, radiation is instead connected to the "jumping" of electrons between two energies/frequencies $E_2>E_2". Which is more convincing: Superposition or jumping? Superposition connects to linearity and realQM, while not linear (for more than one electron), may still show features of "near linearity" and thus allow understanding in the form of "superposition", while realQM carries full non-linear dynamics. On the other hand, "jumping" of electrons in stdQM either requires new physics, which is missing, or has no meaning at all. This connects to the non-physical nature of the atom of stdQM discussed in a previous post presenting a contradiction in particular in the case of atomic radiation, where atoms are observed to interact with the physics of electro-magnetics and thus must be physical, because interaction between non-physics and physics is telekinesis or psychokinesis, which is viewed as pseudo-science: String theory and multiversa are spin-offs of stdQM with the non-physical aspects driven to an extreme, and accordingly by many physicists viewed as pseudo-science. PS In Quantum Theory at the Crossroads Reconsidering the Solvay Conference 1927 we read (p 132): • In 1926, with the development of wave mechanics, Schrödinger saw a new possibility of conceiving a mechanism for radiation: the superposition of two waves would involve two frequencies and emitted radiation could be understood as some kind of "difference tone" (or beat). • In his first paper on quantisation, Schrödinger states that this picture would "much more pleasing than the one of quantum jump". • This idea is still the basis of today's semi-classical radiation theory (often used in quantum optics), that is, the determination of classical electromagnetic radiation from the current associated with a charge density proportional to$\vert\psi\vert^2\$.
• The second paper refers to radiation only in passing.
Clearly, Schrödinger was heading in a fruitful direction, but he was stopped by Born, Bohr and Heisenberg.