Recent content by J O Linton

Thank you for these very appropriate references

That is not an answer. GR may reduce to Newtons laws at speeds less than c but the explanation of why planets move in ellipses is totally different under GR. I want an explanation in terms of photons and, perhaps, wave functions.

Just as General Relativity has superceeded Newtonian gravitation, so QED is claimed to have succeeded Maxwells laws of elecromagnetism. What then is the standard quantum mechanical explaition of the fact that a bunch of elecrons oscillating in a wire 100 miles away can make an electron in my TV...

I completely accept that. Thanks.

But my point is that the maths is different. Several people have already pointed out that you cannot apply SWE to photons.

OK So if we technically have to use Diracs relativistic equation to predict the behaviour of single photons in a double slit experiment but we can use SWE to predict he behaviour of electrons in a similar situation it is surely not a coincidence that they predict essentially the same result. It...

One more thing, if photons do not have a position operator and if non-relativistic QT does not apply to photons, why is the SWE so successful in predicting the outcome of situations like the double slit experiment?

This makes a lot of sense. In the case of an electron the correct answer is therefore C. Thanks. I looked up the Mott problem. That answered some other questions too. Very interesting.

Golly! That is quite some cop-out! suppose the atom is surrounded by a spherical half-silvered mirror of radius half a light second. Surely the photon is now in a superposition of two states, one transmitted, one reflected so it must have a wave function. What is the probability distribution of...

A photon is emitted from an excited atom at the origin. I would like to know what is the shape of the wave function or rather the probability distribution after 1 second. Is it A: a point 1 light second from the origin B: a spherical shell of radius 1 light second C: a spherical packet of waves...

Thank you for your response. I now realise that classical wave theory and QM must give the same answers as to the frequency of detection. It was stupid of me to suggest that D1 could ever fire 50% of the time! The quantum weirdness only becomes apparent when you try to explain why you get the...

The diagram above shows an ideal perfectly collimated equal arm M-Z interferometer. Photons enter the apparatus at the bottom left at a rate of 100 vertically polarised photons every second. Ideal polarisers are placed in the arms A and B at 45 degrees left and right. A third polariser is placed...

I think this post best answers my question. Thank you.

Would it, therefore, be fair to say that, on an interpretation which allows objective reduction (or collapse) of the wave function, precise knowledge of both x and p is only possible after the collapse, not before?

I am assuming that the transverse momentum is equal to ##p sin \theta## where ##p = h/ \lambda##