Glen writes: < An additional basic question would be whether or not there are "lateral states of different kind" (that's my own nonsense phrase). I.e. maybe an atom can be in an energy state X that is (reductively) the same energy level as another state Y, but with or without the ability to move from state X to state Y without going up or down in energy level? >
Quantum tunneling enables moving between such states (without kinetic energy). The probability of a configuration comes from the energy of the configuration, not the details of the configuration. Even a ground state doesn't have to be a unique configuration. There's also the notion of superposition states that aren't even definite states, but nonetheless can be characterized by their energy (and probability). Marcus ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
