Electromagnetic radiation and resonance phenomena in quantum mechanics

TL;DR

This paper explores how electromagnetic radiation and resonance phenomena influence quantum systems, demonstrating that stationary states are distinguished only when electromagnetic interactions are considered, and explaining light's corpuscular effects through wave interactions.

Contribution

It shows that stationary states in quantum mechanics are only meaningful when electromagnetic radiation is included, providing a wave-based explanation for phenomena traditionally seen as particle effects.

Findings

Stationary states are distinguished only with electromagnetic interactions.

Resonance interactions explain effects like photoelectric and Compton effects.

Wave interactions can account for phenomena typically attributed to particle properties.

Abstract

It is demonstrated that, if one remains in the framework of quantum mechanics taken alone, stationary states (energy eigenstates) are in no way singled out with respect to nonstationary ones, and moreover the stationary states would be difficult if possible to realize in practice. Owing to the nonstationary states any quantum system can absorb or emit energy in arbitrary continuous amounts. The peculiarity of the stationary states appears only if electromagnetic radiation that must always accompany nonstationary processes in real systems is taken into account. On the other hand, when the quantum system absorbs or emits energy in the form of a wave the determining role is played by resonance interaction of the system with the wave. Here again the stationary states manifest themselves. These facts and influence of the resonator upon the incident wave enable one to explain all effects ascribed to manifestation of the corpuscular properties of light (the photoelectric effect, the Compton effect etc.) solely on a base of the wave concept of light.