Related papers: Are atoms waves or particles?
The wave function of an atom passed through a diffraction grating acquires a regular space structure and the interaction of another particle with this atom can be thought of as scattering on a 'quantum grating' composed of a single atom.…
An atom laser is a hypothetical device which would produce an atomic field analogous to the electromagnetic field of a photon laser. Here I argue that for this analogy to be meaningful it is necessary to have a precise definition of a laser…
We assume that particles are point-like objects even when not observed. We report on the consequences of our assumption within the realm of quantum theory. An important consequence is the necessity of vacuum fields to account for particle…
The scattering of relativistic Dirac particles by a Coulomb field $\pm Ze^2/r$ in two dimensions is studied and the scattering amplitude is obtained as a partial wave series. For small $Z$ the series can be summed up approximately to give a…
In Bohmian mechanics elementary particles exist objectively, as point particles moving according to a law determined by a wavefunction. In this context, questions as to whether the particles of a certain species are real--questions such as,…
In quantum theory particles are represented as wave packets. Shock wave analysis of quantum equations of motion shows that wave function representation in general and wave packet description in particular contains discontinuities due to a…
Until recently, wave-particle duality has been thought of as quantum principle without a counterpart in classical physics. This belief was challenged after (i) finding that average dynamics of a classical particle in strong inhomogeneous…
By using trajectory-based approaches to quantum transition, it is found that laser can agitate the probability flow in atoms to form alternating current with the frequency of the laser. The detailed physical process of quantum transition is…
We describe the resonant interaction of an atom with a strongly focused light beam by expanding the field in multipole waves. For a classical field, or when the field is described by a coherent state, we find that both intensity pattern and…
Inspired by the natural piezoelectric effect, we introduce hybrid-wave electromechanical meta-atoms and meta-molecules that consist of coupled electrical and mechanical oscillators with similar resonance frequencies. We propose an…
A numerical study has been done of collisions between protons and hydrogen atoms, treated as classical particles, at low impact velocities. The presence of chaos has been looked for by investigating the processes with standard techniques of…
Localized scattering phenomena may result in the formation of stationary matter waves originating from a compact region in physical space. Mathematically, such waves are advantageously expressed in terms of quantum sources that are…
In this note we will first argue that there is evidence in supporting the view that de Broglie waves have a gravitational origin. In view of the extreme weakness of the gravitational field, however, this seems to be an unlikely proposition.…
A theoretical analysis of the scattering of plane-wave atomic excitations in disordered solids has been made in terms of the spectral densities. Hybridization between transverse and longitudinal waves of approximately the same frequency is…
Feynman contended that the double-slit experiment contained the `only mystery' in quantum mechanics. The mystery was that electrons traverse the interferometer as waves, but are detected as particles. This note was motivated by the question…
We discuss the scattering of a light pulse by a single atom in free space using a purely semi-classical framework. The atom is treated as a linear elastic scatterer allowing to treat each spectral component of the incident pulse separately.…
As a substitute for the current hypothesis of space-time continuity, we show the nature and the characteristics of a Schild's discrete space-time. With the wave perturbations of its metrical structure we formulate the working hypothesis…
Relations between particle and wave properties for charge carriers in periodic potentials of crystalline metals and semiconductors are derived. The particle aspects of electrons and holes in periodic potentials are considered using…
A textbook interpretation of quantum physics is that quantum objects can be described in a particle or a wave picture, depending on the operations and measurements performed. Beyond this widely held believe, we demonstrate in this…
The wave-particle duality of the vacuum states of quantum fields is considered and the particle-like property of the vacuum state of a quantum field is proposed as a vacuum-particle which carries the vacuum-energy and the vacuum-momentum of…