In textbook Standard Quantum Mechanics StdQM the emission spectrum of an atom (spontaneous or stimulated) of an atom consists of light of certain frequencies $f=\frac{E}{h}$ where $E=E_1-E_2$ is the difference in energies $E_1$ and $E_2$ between two different electronic quantum states given by two wave functions $\Psi_1$ and $\Psi_2$ forming a superposition $\Psi =\Psi_1+\Psi_2$ carrying the beat frequency $f$. Here $h$ is Planck's constant connecting frequency and energy by $E=hf$.
The functions $\Psi_1$ and $\Psi_2$ carry no real physical meaning, while the emission of light is observable as physical reality, which creates a gap:
- How can components without physical meaning form meaningful physics?
This is the basic question of StdQM as theory about real physics. We know that an oscillating dipole creates an electromagnetic wave/light of the frequency of the oscillation and so we expect to find the origin of the emission spectrum in oscillation of electronic charge density between states with different energy.
For example, oscillation of the electron of the H atom between the ground state and the first excited state would give the first line in the H spectrum as radiation from a real oscillation of charge density.
But this is not what StdQM delivers since the wave functions lack connection to real charge density and instead have meaning as probability densities, which cannot radiate. This means that in StdQM the frequency of emission is connected to a beat frequency of two states in superposition and the oscillating dipole origin is lost.
On the other hand, RealQM as directly based on non-overlapping charge densities carries the oscillating dipole origin of the emission spectrum with more clear connection to real physics than that of superposition in StdQM.
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