Post by: McQueen on 29/03/2016 01:52:05
Electromagnetic waves are waves which can travel through the vacuum of outer space. Mechanical waves, unlike electromagnetic waves, require the presence of a material medium in order to transport their energy from one location to another. Sound waves are examples of mechanical waves while light waves are examples of electromagnetic waves.
Basic quantum mechanics is set up to describe how a fixed number of particles behave - for instance in externally applied electromagnetic or other fields. Unfortunately this involved the setting up of a field for every sub-atomic particle.
In order to describe objects like fields it is necessary to allow particles to be created and destroyed. In the mid-1920s there was already discussion of how to set up a formalism for this, with an underlying idea again being to think in terms of virtual oscillators - this early idea in Quantum Mechanics envisioned the field as being due to the vibrations of the oscillator, but now one for each possible state of each possible one of any number of particles.
At first this was just applied to a pure electromagnetic field of non-interacting photons, but by the end of the 1920s there was a version of quantum electrodynamics (QED) for interacting photons and electrons that is essentially the same as today. To find predictions from this theory a so-called perturbation expansion was made, with successive terms representing progressively more interactions, and each having a higher power of the so-called coupling constant α
1/137. It was immediately noticed, however, that self-interactions of particles would give rise to infinities. At first attempts were made to avoid this by modifying the basic theory . But by the mid-1940s detailed calculations were being done in which infinite parts were just being dropped - and the results were being found to agree rather precisely with experiments. In the late 1940s this procedure was then essentially justified by the idea of renormalization: that since in all possible QED processes only three different infinities can ever appear, these can in effect systematically be factored out from all predictions of the theory.
In the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED), in which the electron–photon interaction is treated perturbatively, the calculation of the electron's magnetic moment has been found to agree with experiment to eleven decimal places. Yet while accepting these results it important to remember that the theory of electron magnetic moment or spin is itself an invention of Quantum Mechanics. Surely the magnetic moment constitutes just atiny fraction of what the propagation of light involves and a insignificant part at that ?
Homogeneity of space is fundamental to quantum field theory (QFT) where the wave function of any object propagates along all available unobstructed paths. When integrated along all possible paths, with a phase factor proportional to the action, the interference of the wave-functions correctly predicts observable phenomena. Every point on the wave front acts as the source of secondary wavelets that spread out in the light cone with the same speed as the wave. The new wave front is found by constructing the surface tangent to the secondary wavelets.
Given above is a very basic view of how Quantum Mechanics treats the propagation of light:
1) Very obvious that light travels as a wave but it is a wave that is treated as a probability wave. Consider the implications ! This means that while light is travelling it does not possess any particulate properties, its energy is diffused over the entire space. It is only through an explanation like this that it is possible for Quantum Mechanics to explain observable phenomena like the inverse square law, although strictly speaking since according to quantum mechanics the wave is following all possible paths, it cannot be an exact representation of the inverse square law. It is only after it is located, or detected that the particle like properties of light become apparent. Its fixed energy, its location in space, its intensity based upon that location and so on. Even the Grimm's Fairy Tales do not reach such fantastic heights!
By contrast GAT theory states that light propagates as follows:
The basic theory of the propagation of light according to GAT is that the total is the sum
this means that the origin of visible 'electromagnetic radiation ' is as follows: Taking an individual electron it is assumed that this electron oscillates rapidly back and forth emitting photons at the same frequency of the light that is produced. Thus if light of 500nm is involved it means that the electron is emitting photons at the rate of 600 x 10 14 photons every second. As a real photon is emitted by the electron the photons of the 'virtual photon aether' that permeate the whole Universe, line up in the direction of propagation of the real photon, forming a line whose ends rest on infinity and the energy of the real photon travels along this line of virtual photons. However, the light does not travel only in the forward direction, as the sequence of real photons is emitted from the electron they pass on their energy to the 'virtual photons' that surround them on all sides, thereby promoting those virtual photons to real photons, This means that the 'virtual photons' that have been promoted now have the same energy as the original photon. Thus as the distance from the source increases, the area over which the light spreads out also increases in keeping with the inverse square law. It also means that total is the sum wherein the exact distance for which the light travels and the area over which its spreads can be very accurately calculated from the number of real photons that have been emitted by the electron.
Not only this but since the light can only travel as far as there are photons available to be released, it follows that only a certain fixed number of photons can be promoted to real photons. It is a whole number, one result of this is that all of the photons comprising the light possess the same individual energy. Once this number of photons is reached, the process comes to a halt and the light ceases to be, its energy fades and it becomes a part of the 'virtual photon aether'.
There are two very important points to note here, namely that light does not propagate forever or until it is absorbed by another electron, as quantum mechanics holds, but travels a finite distance as it travels over this finite distance ( if it is incoherent light) it spreads out in keeping with the inverse square law, at the same time, although its intensity might reduce, each individual photon retains its original identity or energy intact. It is extremely important to note that this explanation of the propagation of light has an accurate and ascertainable explanation of every observable phenomena related to light and its propagation.
The fantastical , complicated and convoluted quantum theory is replaced by a simple ( not simplistic ) theory that accounts for every phenomenon, including how coherent light will travel!