In reply to Harry Veeder's message of Sun, 24 Mar 2013 13:13:10 -0400: Hi, [snip] >Classical EM theory says a charge undergoing acceleration should radiate >energy. >A charge with angular momentum is experiencing an acceleration (in the >classical mechanical sense >of angular menumtum) so it should also lose angular momentum through a >process of radiation. >In classical physics the process of radiating energy is expected to be >continuous from infinite to zero, >which means there is no minimum energy state.
This is true, when there are no other factors involved. However in atoms, the electron is restricted to occupying resonant states. It is the resonances that are responsible for the quantization. > >So your proposal of a minimum energy state is different from classical >physics but it is also different >from quantum physics because the process of radiation is continuous, >rather than discrete, above that the minimum. Not quite. Above the ground state, the electron is still restricted to resonant states, and hence photon emission is also quantized. (Only resonant states are even momentarily stable.) Not only is it quantized, but restricted to transitions in which the total angular momentum changes by h_bar, which is the angular momentum of the photon. It is this latter restriction which gives rise to the "selection rules" of QM. (Not all possible transitions are "allowed".) "Forbidden" transitions have very weak spectral lines, and IMO can only occur at all when the electron can also exchange angular momentum with something else during photon emission. The exchange with something else allows the total angular momentum imparted to the new photon to be precisely h_bar. My model differs from QM in that I propose that below the ground state, the electron "spin" becomes less than that commonly accepted as the "intrinsic" spin of the electron. (take my use of the word "spin" with a grain of salt.) Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
