R.I.

C QUANTUM PHYSICS & OUR UNIVERSE

Niels Bohr
said,
"Anyone
who is not
shocked by
quantum
theory has
not
understood
it."

A2 level-Unit 4 | Suranjan Viraj

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Quantum Physics & Our Universe

➢ The Photon Concept

➢ Photoelectric Effect
➢ Wave-Particle Duality
➢ De Broglie Wavelength
➢ Energy Levels
➢ Stationary Waves in the Hydrogen Atom
➢ Types of Spectra
➢ Electromagnetic Doppler Effect {Red Shift and Blue
Shift}
➢ The Expansion of The Universe and The Big Bang
➢ The Open And Close Universe

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What is Quantum Physics?
Quantum physics is a branch of science that deals with discrete,
indivisible units of energy called quanta as described by the Quantum
Theory. There are five main ideas represented in Quantum Theory:
1. Energy is not continuous, but comes in small but discrete units.
2. The elementary particles behave both like particles and like waves.
3. The movement of these particles is inherently random.
4. It is physically impossible to know both the position and the
momentum of a particle at the same time. The more precisely one is
known, the less precise the measurement of the other is.
5. The atomic world is nothing like the world we live in.
While at a glance this may seem like just another strange theory, it
contains many clues as to the fundamental nature of the universe and is
more important then even relativity in the grand scheme of things (if any
one thing at that level could be said to be more important then anything
else). Furthermore, it describes the nature of the universe as being much
different then the world we see. As Niels Bohr said, "Anyone who is not
shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."

T HE P HOTON C ONCEPT
A photon is an isolated clump of electromagnetic energy (discrete
packets)

h=Planck's constant {h = 6.62 x 10-34 J.s} c=speed of

light{c=3 x 108 ms-1}

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We can now appreciate how energy and frequency or wavelength is
related. Visible light is in the middle of the above picture and is of
relatively moderate energy. Infrared, microwave, and radio waves are
lower frequency (higher wavelength) and hence lower in energy. To the
left of visible light on this graph are the higher frequency forms of
electromagnetic radiation. Gamma-rays (g-rays) have extremely high
frequency; photons of this type of light carry a lot of energy. X-rays are
also "high energy". Ultraviolet radiation is also higher energy than visible
light.

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The Photoelectric Effect
If you shine light of a high enough frequency onto the surface of a metal
in a vacuum, it will emit electrons, called photoelectrons.

When light hits its surface the metal is bombarded by photons. If one of
these photons collides with a free electron, the electron will gain enough
energy equal to hf.

Before an electron can leave the surface of the metal, it needs enough
energy to break the bonds holding it there. This energy is called the work
function energy (Ø).
And its value depends on the metal.

If the energy gained from the photon is greater than the work function
energy, the electron is emitted [hf ≥ Ø].

If it isn’t, the electron will get excited then release the energy as another
photon, the metal will heat up but no electrons will be emitted.It is
reasonable to expect that a certain amount of energy is required to
liberate an electron from a metal surface, since the electron is attracted
to the positively charged nuclei in the metal. Thus, in order for the
electron to escape, the light must supply sufficient energy to the electron
to overcome this attraction.

Maximum Kinetic Energy {vmax} 1/2mv2max=

hf-Ø
1/2mv2max =eVs {stopping potential}

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The following experimental observations are found when studying the photoelectric effect.
First, in order for the effect to be observed, the light must be of at least a minimum frequency
which we call the threshold frequency, ν 0. This frequency is a characteristic for a given
metal. That is, it is the same value for each sample of that metal, but it varies from one metal
to the next. For low frequency light, photoelectrons are not observed in any number, no
matter how intense the light source is. For light with frequency above ν 0, the number of
photoelectrons emitted by the metal (measured by the photoelectric current, F) increases
directly with the intensity of the light. These results are shown in figure 1.

Figure 1: The
Photoelectric
Effect. Φ is
the
photoelectric
current, ν is
the frequency
of incident
light, and I is

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 the intensity of
incident light.
(a) For
photoelectrons
to be emitted,
the light
frequency
must be
greater than a
threshold
value. (b) If
the frequency
is high
enough, the
number of
photoelectrons
increases
directly with
the light
intensity.
Second, we can measure the energies of the electrons emitted by the metal. For a given metal,
all photoelectrons have the same kinetic energy for a fixed frequency of light above ν 0. This
fixed kinetic energy is independent of the intensity of the light source. As the frequency of
the light is increased, the kinetic energy of the emitted electrons increases proportionally.
These results are shown in figure 2.

Figure 2: KE is the photoelectron kinetic energy, ν is the frequency of

incident light, and I is the intensity of incident light. (a) If the frequency is
high enough, the energy of the electrons increases directly with the
frequency. (b) However, the energy of the photoelectrons does not depend on
the light intensity.

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Reasoning from this analogy, we must conclude that the energy of the
light is supplied in "bundles" or "packets" of constant energy, which we
will call photons. We have already concluded that the light supplies
energy to the electron which is proportional to the light frequency. Now
we can say that the energy of each photon is proportional to the
frequency of the light. The intensity of the light is proportional to the
number of these packets. This now accounts for the threshold frequency
in a straightforward way. For a photon to dislodge a photoelectron, it must
have sufficient energy, by itself, to supply to the electron to overcome its
attraction to the metal. Although increasing the intensity of the light does
increase the total energy of the light, it does not increase the energy of
an individual photon. Therefore, if the frequency of the light is too low, the
photon energy is too low to eject an electron. Referring back to the
analogy, we can say that a single bowling bowl can accomplish what
many ping-pong balls cannot, and a single high frequency photon can
accomplish what many low frequency photons cannot.
The remarkable aspects of the photoelectric effect when it was first observed were:
1. The electrons were emitted immediately - no time lag!
2. Increasing the intensity of the light increased the number of photoelectrons, but not
their maximum kinetic energy!
3. Red light will not cause the ejection of electrons, no matter what the intensity!

4. A weak violet light will eject only a few electrons, but their maximum kinetic energies
are greater than those for intense light of longer wavelengths!

Wave-Particle Duality
Does light consist of particles or waves? When one focuses upon the different types of
phenomena observed with light, a strong case can be built for a wave picture:

Interference Diffraction Polarization

By the turn of the 20th century, most physicists were convinced by phenomena like the above
that light could be fully described by a wave, with no necessity for invoking a particle nature.
But the story was not over.

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Phenomen Can be explained Can be explained
on in terms of waves. in terms of
particles.

Reflection

Refraction

Interferenc
e

Diffraction

Polarizatio
n

Photoelect
ric effect

Most commonly observed phenomena with light can be explained by waves. But the
photoelectric effect suggested a particle nature for light. Then electrons too were found to
exhibit dual natures.

De Broglie

If “wave-like” light showed particle properties (photons),

“particles” like electrons should be expected to show
wave-like properties.

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The de Broglie equation relates a wave property to a moving particle
property.

λ =h/mv

(mv, momentum) h=Planck's constant {h = 6.62 x 10-34 J.s}

The Two-Slit Experiment/Electrons

If we fire a beam of electrons through a double slit onto a detector, and

the slits made small enough and close enough together, we
actually observe the following:

This means that the electrons are diffracting through the slits and interfering with each other
just like waves. This means that the electrons have wave-particle duality, just like photons. In
this case, they must have properties like wavelength and frequency. We can deduce the
properties from the behavior of the electrons as they pass through our diffraction grating.

Recall the property relating wavelength to diffraction fringe spacing that we found:

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Where:
S is the fringe spacing λ is the wavelength
L is the distance from slits to screen d is the grating
spacing
If we can get electrons to diffract through a known grating, we can obtain a wavelength for
the electron. Practically, it turns out that electrons have an extremely short wavelength, so we
cannot make gratings fine enough to diffract those significantly using traditional methods.
However, we can use crystals as they are essentially extremely regular gratings with spacing
on the order of nanometers.
If we use an electron gun to produce our electrons, and fire these electrons though a crystal
with a known atomic structure, we can work out the wavelength of the electron
experimentally. This leads to a description of the electron as a wave.

Electron Energy Levels

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Electrons in an atom can only exist in certain well-defined energy
levels. Each level is given a number (called the principle quantum
number of the electron en that state), with n=1 representing the
electrons lowest possible energy – its ground state.

When excited by electromagnetic waves, with enough energy

(absorbed photons) the electrons will climb up the energy levels.

Electrons can move down an energy level by emitting a photon. Since

these transitions are between definite energy levels, the energy of
each photon emitted can only take
∆ E=E -E =hf=hc/
2 1
certain values.

An electron (the red one) absorbs a An electron emits a photon and

photon (the orange one) and jumps jumps to a lower orbit.
to a higher orbit (the green one)

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The Balmer series of spectral lines at visible wavelengths are emitted
when the electrons fall from all higher atomic energy levels to the first
excited level, n = 2. In so doing, it emits a photon with energy equal to
the energy difference of the initial and final states. Other series indicated
on figure above illustrate the other series of lines found by Theodore
Lyman and Louis Paschen. This type of diagram is called an energy level
diagram because it illustrates the discrete, allowed energy levels and the
permissible transitions for the orbiting electron.

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Stationary waves in the Hydrogen Atom
Since light has particle and wave characteristics, electrons should have
wave-like character.

Specifically when they’re in orbit around a nucleus they ought to behave

like the standing waves.

Exist ay certain well defined frequencies, for the circular orbits suggested
by Bohr, the wavelength of the electron waves should fit the
circumference a whole number times.

The principle quantum number is equal to the number of complete waves

that fit the circumference.

“Orbiting” electron as standing wave around the nucleus, (a) two cycles per orbit, (b) three
cycles per orbit.
Electrons only could exist in certain, definite “orbits” around the nucleus
because those were the only distances where the wave ends would
match. In any other radius, the wave should destructively interfere with
itself and thus cease to exist.

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Types of spectra {CONTINUOUS, EMISSION, AND ADSORPTION}
Spectroscopy is a tool used by scientists to determine the elemental composition
of objects. Spectroscopes are tools that break down the light emitted or
absorbed by chemical elements into specific lines of color. Each element is
individual in the type of light that it emits. Therefore, each element has its own
spectral “fingerprint” that makes it unique and therefore easy to identify. There
are three basic types of spectra used by scientists. They are continuous spectra,
absorption spectra, and emission spectra.

Continuous spectra can be identified by all the colors of the rainbow blended
next to each other in a band. Superheated solids and liquids will emit light of all
colors.

Emission spectra can be identified by bright lines of color on top of a black background.
Atoms that are excited only emit certain colors of light. Because of this characteristic, we can
use the bright bands of color to identify the atom.

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Absorption spectra can be identified by black bands on top of a continuous
spectrum. When atoms are present as a gas, they will absorb only certain
colors of light. When viewed through a spectroscope, some colors will be
missing. The missing colors are the colors that were absorbed by the gas
as the light passed through it.

Single observed frequency in the hydrogen atom spectrum. As shown in

the following image the frequencies observed in the visible range of the
spectrum are all due to n = 2. This series is called the Balmer series (acc.
to the Swiss spectroscopist Johann Balmer).

The conditions needed to produce line spectra

Emission and absorption lines can tell us a great deal about a distant
celestial source, but they only occur under certain conditions.
Emission lines from an element will appear if
• there are atoms of the element present
• the atoms are in a low-density gas
• the atoms are excited into a particular high energy level by some
external source
Absorption lines from an element will appear if
• there are atoms of the element present
• the atoms are in a low-density gas
• the atoms spend most of their time in a particular low-energy level
• the gas lies between us and a source of continuous light (of all
wavelengths)

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Electromagnetic Doppler Effect {red shift and Blue
Shift}

When the source of a waveform—such as sound or light—is moving, the

detected frequency or wavelength is different than what was emitted. This
change is called the Doppler Effect. The wavelength appears shorter when
the source is moving toward you and appears longer when the source is
moving away.

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 Z=Δλ/λ=v/c if The star is pulled toward or away
v<<c from Earth as the planet orbits
around it. As the star moves
toward Earth its light is shifted to
a shorter wavelength, known as a blue shift. If the star is moving away
from Earth we see the light as red shifted because the light from the star
has been shifted to longer wavelengths. Astronomers can measure how
much the light from the star has shifted. This is not a dramatic shift, like
from blue light to red light, but it is enough for astronomers to measure.
From the measurements, it can be calculated how fast the galaxies are
moving away from us. It also shows that the Universe is expanding.

The amount red shift or blue shift is determined by the following formula:

Z-is the red shift

Δλ-difference between the observed wavelength and the emitted wave
length

λ-is the emitted wavelength

v-is the velocity of the source in the direction of the observer and c is the
speed of light

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The expansion of the Universe and the Big Bang
In the Big Bang theory the universe started billions of years ago.....

While many people believe that the big bang

theory refers to an explosion, it actually refers to

According to the Big bang theory, the universe originated in an extremely

dense singularity. Space has expanded with time, and galaxies have been
moved further away from each other.

It is these particles that were made in the Big Bang, eventually forming
galaxies billions of years later. Such was the violence of that event that
galaxies, or cluster of galaxies, are still rushing apart in an ever-
expanding universe.

The Birth of Atoms

Immediately after the start of the Big Bang, space rapidly expanded for a
very short time. This process which lasted for the minutest fraction of
second in called inflation. After that, expansion began to slow down and
different kinds of particles including quarks and electrons made their
appearance. Just one millionth of a second after the birth of the universe,
the quarks had clumped together to form new particles called protons and
neutrons.

After a hundred seconds some of the protons and nearly all neutrons
gathered into bunches consisting of 2 protons and neutrons. Eventually
each bunch or atomic nucleus captured 2 electrons to form a helium atom
and each remaining proton captured a single electron to form a hydrogen
atom. The first building blocks of matter had been born.

The Birth of Galaxies

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By the time atoms of hydrogen and helium had formed, the searing heat
of the Big Bang had cooled down and the dense gas of earlier times was
becoming more thinly spread out as the space continued to expand.
Gradually though perhaps a billion years later huge clouds of gas held
together by gravity began to collapse to form galaxies and clusters of
galaxies. As time went on stars began to be formed in the galaxies and
the galaxies began to form familiar elliptical and spiral shapes. About 5
billion years ago, in our own Milky Way Galaxy the Sun was born. Planets
began to form around the Sun, and one of them was our home the Earth.

Hubble’s Law
Edwin Hubble was able to show that the velocity of a distance galaxy, measured from Earth,
was directly proportional to the distance of the galaxy from Earth.

Hubble only had a few points to work with at first. Later evidence was able to support this
proportionality between velocity and distance.

The direct proportionality between velocity and distance can be expressed as :

v=Hd

where v = velocity of a distant galaxy from Earth.

H = Hubble's constant. H= (2 ±1) x 10-18 s-1
d = distance between the galaxy and Earth (in our galaxy).
Astronomical distances measured in light years (ly).A light year is the
distance travelled by light in one year =9.46 x 10-15 m
Consider the distance (d) between two galaxies we observe today. Let
this be a time T after the Big Bang.

Using v = d / T we can then state that the age of the Universe is given by
T = d/v

And Hubble’s equation states

that v = Hd , H= (2 ±1 ) x 10-
The Age of the Universe T= s
18 -1

1/H
So substituting for v gives

Age of the universe=5 x 1017 s ≈1010 years

Therefore knowledge of the Hubble constant is important in our

calculation of the age of the universe. Unfortunately, there appears to be
a large disagreement between scientists on the value to be taken for the
Hubble constant. The main reasons for the differences arise from the

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 errors (uncertainties) in the measurements of v and d, and the methods
used to determine these values. To make things more complicated,
Hubble constant will change with time, if the universe is decelerating in is
expansion, as a result of gravitational attraction.

The Open and Close Universe

The Big Crunch –
Universe Open OR
Closed

Big
crunch
The closed
universes
correspond to
the bottom
curve. Open universes correspond to the top curve. The flat universe (the
critical universe) separates things into closed and open universes.

Flat universes ---> expanding universe and will stop expanding after an
infinite amount of time; the flat universe is the dividing line between open
and closed universes.
Closed universes ---> expanding, but will reach a maximum size and then
collapse
Open universes ---> expanding universe which will expand forever and is
infinite in spatial extent
The expansion of the universe is gradually slowing down. Galaxies may
continue to move apart forever. However, gravity a force of attraction
between bodies in the universe – may eventually halt the expansion.
Then, the galaxies will start to fall together until everything collides in a
‘Big Crunch’. No one can tell whether the universe is open (ever
expanding) or closed (destined eventually to collapse upon itself).

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