Related papers: The conception of photons
A history and drama of the development of quantum probability theory is outlined starting from the discovery of the Plank's constant exactly a 100 years ago. It is shown that before the rise of quantum mechanics 75 years ago, the quantum…
It is shown that the photon, the quantum of electromagnetic field, allows the consideration in the framework of the scheme which in some aspects is typical for the phonon, an excitation of the crystal lattice of a solid. The conclusion is…
In the history of physics 1905 can be considered as the year of Einstein's proclamation of independence of events. Indeed the concept of independent events occupies a essential place in the three main 1905 Einstein's papers (quanta of…
In 1924, S. N. Bose proposed (i) a new counting method for photons and (ii) a probabilistic law of microscopic matter-radiation interactions, treating emission and absorption as two aspects of a single, field-dependent process. While…
The special theory of relativity does not predict the existence of photons (quanta of electromagnetic radiation). However, it is demonstrated here that it follows from the special theory of relativity that if photons do exist---and we know…
This is a brief history of photons, both soft and hard, real and virtual. About 150-100 years ago, Maxwell and Einstein discovered intriguing properties of electromagnetic fields and how to understand them both macroscopically and…
Planck's law for black-body radiation marks the origin of quantum theory and is discussed in all introductory (or advanced) courses on this subject. However, the question whether Planck really implied quantisation is debated among…
It is a little known fact that while he was developing his theory of general relativity, Einstein's initial idea was a variable speed of light theory. Indeed space-time curvature can be mimicked by a speed of light $c(r)$ that depends on…
In 1914, Planck introduced the concept of a white body. In nature, no true white bodies are known. We assume that the universe after last-scattering is an ideal white body that contains a tremendously large number of thermal photons and is…
In his celebrated 1916-17 papers in which he proposed the A and B coefficients for the spontaneous and stimulated emission of energy quanta from excited atoms, Einstein conjectured that stimulated emission involves the release of individual…
Retrospectively, in 1905, Special Relativity seemed palpably close; it was "in the air". But apparently it needed the fresh approach of an unprejudiced newcomer, Einstein, to take the final step. I report, in a pedagogical fashion, on the…
In 1924, Satyendra Nath Bose's pioneering work laid the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics, which describes particles with integral spins. His derivation of Planck's law for blackbody radiation bypassed classical assumptions, relying…
Quantum theory of photons based on the first quantization technique, similar to that used by Schroedinger in the formulation of quantum mechanics, is considered. First, scalar quantum mechanics of photons operating with the photon wave…
We review the derivation of Planck's Radiation Formula on the light of recent studies in its centenary. We discuss specially the issue of discreteness, Planck's opinion on his discovery, and the critical analysis on the contributions by…
Einstein's special theory of relativity starts with assumptions about how observations conducted in relatively moving inertial frames must compare. From these assumptions, conclusions can be drawn regarding the laws of physics in any one…
In the post-Maxwellian era, sensing that the tide of discoveries in electromagnetim indicated a decline of the mechanical view, Einstein replaced Newton's three absolutes -- space, time and mass, with a single one, the velocity of light.…
In his 1916's first paper on gravitational waves Einstein began to speculate on interactions between the principles of the old quantum theory and his theory of gravitation. With this contribution Einstein has stimulated a lot of similar…
The Stefan-Boltzmann constant arose from photon densities inside a cavity, but inside matter photon mode densities are material specific. Photon speeds are governed by the mode they occupy, so mode densities can be expressed in terms of…
This is a brief look at how Einstein explored formal symmetries between quantized matter and quantized radiation between 1903 and 1925. Specifically he employed thermodynamic comparisons between the ideal molecular gas and the photon gas.…
We critically revisit Einstein's 1905 heuristic argument for lightquanta, considering its internal coherence and the scope of its applicability. We argue that Einstein's reasoning, often celebrated for its originality, is ambiguous because…