Light frequency/electron interactions

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter gonegahgah
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Interactions Light
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
3 replies · 3K views
gonegahgah
Messages
376
Reaction score
0
Is there any science out there that associates electrons with having different frequencies of their own (like light has different frequencies) depending on where they are in which atom? I'm just wondering why electrons have particular quantum jump differences between the different types of elements and molecules and their orbitals. Does any science attribute the property of frequency - let alone different frequencies depending on environment - to electrons inside an atom? Or do electrons not have frequency?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
No, electrons have energy and momentum. Atoms have discrete energy levels (so-called atomic orbitals), but frequencies in the context you mention can only be ascribed as properties of waves, classical waves. We speak of <frequency> and <wave length> of classical electromagnetic radiation, not of any quantum objects.

Actually in the quantum theory the fundamental observables become energy, momentum, position and spin (helicity, polarization).
 
Look up de Broglie wavelength. It says that the de Broglie relations show that the wavelength is inversely proportional to the momentum of a particle and that the frequency is directly proportional to the particle's kinetic energy.