In reply to Harry Veeder's message of Mon, 25 Mar 2013 02:33:23 -0400: Hi, [snip] >On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 1:47 AM, <mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: >> 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.) >> > >This abstract seems to support your theory as long as the electron's >displacement is small relative to its size. > >http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00715060
This abstract appears to assume that radiation is always possible, whereas I think that it is only possible when h_bar change in angular momentum can occur. In short I don't think they realize that Maxwell's equations are missing a constraint. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
