Nuclear Physics

Nuclear Physics
My first eBook using Wikipedia by Billy

Merchant
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Contents
Articles
Atom 1
Atomic nucleus 19
Electron 24
Nuclear physics 41
Particle physics 46
Photon 52
Physics 68
Quantum mechanics 81
References
Article Sources and Contributors 100
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 105
Article Licenses
License 107
Atom 1
Atom
Helium atom
An illustration of the helium atom, depicting the nucleus (pink) and the electron cloud distribution (black). The nucleus (upper right) in helium-4 is
in reality spherically symmetric and closely resembles the electron cloud, although for more complicated nuclei this is not always the case. The
black bar is one angstrom (10−10 m or 100 pm).
Classification
Smallest recognized division of a chemical element
Properties
Mass range: 1.67×10−27 to 4.52×10−25 kg
Electric charge: zero (neutral), or ion charge
Diameter range: 62 pm (He) to 520 pm (Cs) (data page)
Components: Electrons and a compact nucleus of protons and neutrons
The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively
charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons
(except in the case of hydrogen-1, which is the only stable nuclide with no neutrons). The electrons of an atom are
bound to the nucleus by the electromagnetic force. Likewise, a group of atoms can remain bound to each other by
chemical bonds based on the same force, forming a molecule. An atom containing an equal number of protons and
electrons is electrically neutral, otherwise it is positively or negatively charged and is known as an ion. An atom is
classified according to the number of protons and neutrons in its nucleus: the number of protons determines the
chemical element, and the number of neutrons determines the isotope of the element.
Chemical atoms, which in science now carry the simple name of "atom," are minuscule objects with diameters of a
few tenths of a nanometer and tiny masses proportional to the volume implied by these dimensions. Atoms can only
be observed individually using special instruments such as the scanning tunneling microscope. Over 99.94% of an
atom's mass is concentrated in the nucleus,[1] with protons and neutrons having roughly equal mass. Each element
has at least one isotope with an unstable nucleus that can undergo radioactive decay. This can result in a
transmutation that changes the number of protons or neutrons in a nucleus. Electrons that are bound to atoms possess
a set of stable energy levels, or orbitals, and can undergo transitions between them by absorbing or emitting photons
Atom 2
that match the energy differences between the levels. The electrons determine the chemical properties of an element,
and strongly influence an atom's magnetic properties. The principles of quantum mechanics have been successfully
used to model the observed properties of the atom.
Etymology
The name atom comes from the Greek ἄτομος (atomos, "indivisible") from ἀ- (a-, "not") and τέμνω (temnō, "I cut"),
which means uncuttable, or indivisible, something that cannot be divided further. The concept of an atom as an
indivisible component of matter was first proposed by early Indian and Greek philosophers. In the 18th and 19th
centuries, chemists provided a physical basis for this idea by showing that certain substances could not be further
broken down by chemical methods, and they applied the ancient philosophical name of atom to the chemical entity.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, physicists discovered subatomic components and structure inside the
atom, thereby demonstrating that the chemical "atom" was divisible and that the name might not be appropriate.[2]
However, it was retained. This has led to some debate about whether the ancient philosophers, who intended to refer
to fundamental individual objects with their concept of "atoms," were referring to modern chemical atoms, or
something more like indivisible subatomic particles such as leptons or quarks, or even some more fundamental
particle that has yet to be discovered.[3]
History of atomic theory
Atomism
The concept that matter is composed of discrete units and cannot be divided into arbitrarily tiny quantities has been
around for millennia, but these ideas were founded in abstract, philosophical reasoning rather than experimentation
and empirical observation. The nature of atoms in philosophy varied considerably over time and between cultures
and schools, and often had spiritual elements. Nevertheless, the basic idea of the atom was adopted by scientists
thousands of years later because it elegantly explained new discoveries in the field of chemistry.[4] The ancient name
of "atom" from atomism had already been nearly universally used to describe chemical atoms by that time, and it
was therefore retained as a term, long after chemical atoms were found to be divisible, and even after smaller, truly
indivisible particles were identified.
References to the concept of atoms date back to ancient Greece and India. In India, the Ājīvika, Jain, and Cārvāka
schools of atomism may date back to the 6th century BCE.[5] The Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools later developed
theories on how atoms combined into more complex objects.[6] In the West, the references to atoms emerged in the
5th century BCE with Leucippus, whose student, Democritus, systematized his views. In approximately 450 BCE,
Democritus coined the term átomos (Greek: ἄτομος), which means "uncuttable" or "the smallest indivisible particle
of matter". Although the Indian and Greek concepts of the atom were based purely on philosophy, modern science
has retained the name coined by Democritus.[4]
Corpuscularianism is the postulate, expounded in the 13th-century by the alchemist Pseudo-Geber (Geber),[7]
sometimes identified with Paul of Taranto, that all physical bodies possess an inner and outer layer of minute
particles or corpuscles.[8] Corpuscularianism is similar to the theory of atomism, except that where atoms were
supposed to be indivisible, corpuscles could in principle be divided. In this manner, for example, it was theorized
that mercury could penetrate into metals and modify their inner structure. Corpuscularianism stayed a dominant
theory over the next several hundred years.
In 1661, natural philosopher Robert Boyle published The Sceptical Chymist in which he argued that matter was
composed of various combinations of different "corpuscules" or atoms, rather than the classical elements of air,
earth, fire and water.[9] During the 1670s corpuscularianism was used by Isaac Newton in his development of the
corpuscular theory of light.[8]
Atom 3
Origin of scientific theory

Further progress in the understanding of atoms did not occur until the
science of chemistry began to develop. In 1789, French nobleman and
scientific researcher Antoine Lavoisier discovered the law of
conservation of mass and defined an element as a basic substance that
could not be further broken down by the methods of chemistry.
In 1805, English instructor and natural philosopher John Dalton used
the concept of atoms to explain why elements always react in ratios of
small whole numbers (the law of multiple proportions) and why certain
gases dissolved better in water than others. He proposed that each
element consists of atoms of a single, unique type, and that these atoms
Various atoms and molecules as depicted in John
can join together to form chemical compounds.[10][11] Dalton is
Dalton's A New System of Chemical Philosophy
considered the originator of modern atomic theory.[12] (1808), one of the earliest scientific works on
atomic theory
Dalton's atomic hypothesis did not specify the size of atoms. Common
sense indicated they must be very small, but nobody knew how small.
Therefore it was a major landmark when in 1865 Johann Josef Loschmidt measured the size of the molecules that
make up air.
An additional line of reasoning in support of particle theory (and by extension atomic theory) began in 1827 when
botanist Robert Brown used a microscope to look at dust grains floating in water and discovered that they moved
about erratically—a phenomenon that became known as "Brownian motion". J. Desaulx suggested in 1877 that the
phenomenon was caused by the thermal motion of water molecules, and in 1905 Albert Einstein produced the first
mathematical analysis of the motion.[13] French physicist Jean Perrin used Einstein's work to experimentally
determine the mass and dimensions of atoms, thereby conclusively verifying Dalton's atomic theory.
In 1869, building upon earlier discoveries by such scientists as
Lavoisier, Dmitri Mendeleev published the first functional periodic
table. The table itself is a visual representation of the periodic law,
which states that certain chemical properties of elements repeat
periodically when arranged by atomic number.[14]
Mendeleev's first periodic table (1869)

Atom 4
Subcomponents and quantum theory

The physicist J. J. Thomson, through his work on cathode rays in 1897,
discovered the electron, and concluded that they were a component of
every atom. Thus he overturned the belief that atoms are the
indivisible, ultimate particles of matter. Thomson postulated that the
low mass, negatively charged electrons were distributed throughout the
atom, possibly rotating in rings, with their charge balanced by the
presence of a uniform sea of positive charge. This later became known
as the plum pudding model.
In 1909, Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of

physicist Ernest Rutherford, bombarded a sheet of gold foil with alpha
rays—by then known to be positively charged helium atoms—and
discovered that a small percentage of these particles were deflected A generic atomic planetary model, or the
Rutherford model
through much larger angles than was predicted using Thomson's
proposal. Rutherford interpreted the gold foil experiment as suggesting
that the positive charge of a heavy gold atom and most of its mass was concentrated in a nucleus at the center of the
atom—the Rutherford model.
While experimenting with the products of radioactive decay, in 1913 radiochemist Frederick Soddy discovered that
there appeared to be more than one type of atom at each position on the periodic table. The term isotope was coined
by Margaret Todd as a suitable name for different atoms that belong to the same element. J.J. Thomson created a
technique for separating atom types through his work on ionized gases, which subsequently led to the discovery of
stable isotopes.
Meanwhile, in 1913, physicist Niels Bohr suggested that the electrons
were confined into clearly defined, quantized orbits, and could jump
between these, but could not freely spiral inward or outward in
intermediate states. An electron must absorb or emit specific amounts
of energy to transition between these fixed orbits. When the light from
a heated material was passed through a prism, it produced a
multi-colored spectrum. The appearance of fixed lines in this spectrum
was successfully explained by these orbital transitions.
Later in the same year Henry Moseley provided additional

experimental evidence in favor of Niels Bohr's theory. These results
A Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, showing an
electron jumping between fixed orbits and refined Ernest Rutherford's and Antonius Van den Broek's model,
emitting a photon of energy with a specific which proposed that the atom contains in its nucleus a number of
frequency positive nuclear charges that is equal to its (atomic) number in the
periodic table. Until these experiments, atomic number was not known
to be a physical and experimental quantity. That it is equal to the atomic nuclear charge remains the accepted atomic
model today.[15]
Chemical bonds between atoms were now explained, by Gilbert Newton Lewis in 1916, as the interactions between
their constituent electrons. As the chemical properties of the elements were known to largely repeat themselves
according to the periodic law,[16] in 1919 the American chemist Irving Langmuir suggested that this could be
explained if the electrons in an atom were connected or clustered in some manner. Groups of electrons were thought
to occupy a set of electron shells about the nucleus.
The Stern–Gerlach experiment of 1922 provided further evidence of the quantum nature of the atom. When a beam
of silver atoms was passed through a specially shaped magnetic field, the beam was split based on the direction of an
Atom 5
atom's angular momentum, or spin. As this direction is random, the beam could be expected to spread into a line.
Instead, the beam was split into two parts, depending on whether the atomic spin was oriented up or down.
In 1924, Louis de Broglie proposed that all particles behave to an extent like waves. In 1926, Erwin Schrödinger
used this idea to develop a mathematical model of the atom that described the electrons as three-dimensional
waveforms rather than point particles. A consequence of using waveforms to describe particles is that it is
mathematically impossible to obtain precise values for both the position and momentum of a particle at the same
time; this became known as the uncertainty principle, formulated by Werner Heisenberg in 1926. In this concept, for
a given accuracy in measuring a position one could only obtain a range of probable values for momentum, and vice
versa. This model was able to explain observations of atomic behavior that previous models could not, such as
certain structural and spectral patterns of atoms larger than hydrogen. Thus, the planetary model of the atom was
discarded in favor of one that described atomic orbital zones around the nucleus where a given electron is most likely
to be observed.
The development of the mass spectrometer allowed the exact mass of
atoms to be measured. The device uses a magnet to bend the trajectory
of a beam of ions, and the amount of deflection is determined by the
ratio of an atom's mass to its charge. The chemist Francis William
Aston used this instrument to show that isotopes had different masses.
The atomic mass of these isotopes varied by integer amounts, called
the whole number rule. The explanation for these different isotopes
awaited the discovery of the neutron, a neutral-charged particle with a
mass similar to the proton, by the physicist James Chadwick in 1932.
Isotopes were then explained as elements with the same number of
protons, but different numbers of neutrons within the nucleus.
Schematic diagram of a simple mass spectrometer

Fission, high-energy physics and condensed matter
In 1938, the German chemist Otto Hahn, a student of Rutherford, directed neutrons onto uranium atoms expecting to
get transuranium elements. Instead, his chemical experiments showed barium as a product. A year later, Lise Meitner
and her nephew Otto Frisch verified that Hahn's result were the first experimental nuclear fission. In 1944, Hahn
received the Nobel prize in chemistry. Despite Hahn's efforts, the contributions of Meitner and Frisch were not
recognized.
In the 1950s, the development of improved particle accelerators and particle detectors allowed scientists to study the
impacts of atoms moving at high energies. Neutrons and protons were found to be hadrons, or composites of smaller
particles called quarks. The standard model of particle physics was developed that so far has successfully explained
the properties of the nucleus in terms of these sub-atomic particles and the forces that govern their interactions.
Components
Subatomic particles
Though the word atom originally denoted a particle that cannot be cut into smaller particles, in modern scientific
usage the atom is composed of various subatomic particles. The constituent particles of an atom are the electron, the
proton and the neutron. However, the hydrogen-1 atom has no neutrons and a positive hydrogen ion has no electrons.
The electron is by far the least massive of these particles at 9.11×10−31 kg, with a negative electrical charge and a
size that is too small to be measured using available techniques.[17] Protons have a positive charge and a mass 1,836
times that of the electron, at 1.6726×10−27 kg, although this can be reduced by changes to the energy binding the
proton into an atom. Neutrons have no electrical charge and have a free mass of 1,839 times the mass of
Atom 6
electrons,[18] or 1.6929×10−27 kg. Neutrons and protons have comparable dimensions—on the order of
2.5×10−15 m—although the 'surface' of these particles is not sharply defined.[19]
In the Standard Model of physics, electrons are truly elementary particles with no internal structure. However, both
protons and neutrons are composite particles composed of elementary particles called quarks. There are two types of
quarks in atoms, each having a fractional electric charge. Protons are composed of two up quarks (each with charge
+2⁄3) and one down quark (with a charge of −1⁄3). Neutrons consist of one up quark and two down quarks. This
distinction accounts for the difference in mass and charge between the two particles.
The quarks are held together by the strong interaction (or strong force), which is mediated by gluons. The protons
and neutrons, in turn, are held to each other in the nucleus by the nuclear force, which is a residuum of the strong
force that has somewhat different range-properties (see the article on the nuclear force for more). The gluon is a
member of the family of gauge bosons, which are elementary particles that mediate physical forces.
Nucleus
All the bound protons and neutrons in
an atom make up a tiny atomic
nucleus, and are collectively called
nucleons. The radius of a nucleus is
approximately equal to 1.07 3√A fm,
where A is the total number of
nucleons.[20] This is much smaller than
the radius of the atom, which is on the
order of 105 fm. The nucleons are
bound together by a short-ranged
attractive potential called the residual
strong force. At distances smaller than
2.5 fm this force is much more
powerful than the electrostatic force The binding energy needed for a nucleon to escape the nucleus, for various isotopes
that causes positively charged protons
to repel each other.[21]
Atoms of the same element have the same number of protons, called the atomic number. Within a single element, the
number of neutrons may vary, determining the isotope of that element. The total number of protons and neutrons
determine the nuclide. The number of neutrons relative to the protons determines the stability of the nucleus, with
certain isotopes undergoing radioactive decay.
The neutron and the proton are different types of fermions. The Pauli exclusion principle is a quantum mechanical
effect that prohibits identical fermions, such as multiple protons, from occupying the same quantum physical state at
the same time. Thus every proton in the nucleus must occupy a different state, with its own energy level, and the
same rule applies to all of the neutrons. This prohibition does not apply to a proton and neutron occupying the same
quantum state.
For atoms with low atomic numbers, a nucleus that has a different number of protons than neutrons can potentially
drop to a lower energy state through a radioactive decay that causes the number of protons and neutrons to more
closely match. As a result, atoms with roughly matching numbers of protons and neutrons are more stable against
decay. However, with increasing atomic number, the mutual repulsion of the protons requires an increasing
proportion of neutrons to maintain the stability of the nucleus, which modifies this trend. Thus, there are no stable
nuclei with equal proton and neutron numbers above atomic number Z = 20 (calcium); and as Z increases toward the
heaviest nuclei, the ratio of neutrons per proton required for stability increases to about 1.5.
Atom 7
The number of protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus can be

modified, although this can require very high energies because of the
strong force. Nuclear fusion occurs when multiple atomic particles join
to form a heavier nucleus, such as through the energetic collision of
two nuclei. For example, at the core of the Sun protons require
energies of 3–10 keV to overcome their mutual repulsion—the
coulomb barrier—and fuse together into a single nucleus. Nuclear
fission is the opposite process, causing a nucleus to split into two
smaller nuclei—usually through radioactive decay. The nucleus can
also be modified through bombardment by high energy subatomic
particles or photons. If this modifies the number of protons in a
nucleus, the atom changes to a different chemical element.
If the mass of the nucleus following a fusion reaction is less than the
Illustration of a nuclear fusion process that forms
sum of the masses of the separate particles, then the difference between
a deuterium nucleus, consisting of a proton and a
these two values can be emitted as a type of usable energy (such as a neutron, from two protons. A positron (e+)—an
gamma ray, or the kinetic energy of a beta particle), as described by antimatter electron—is emitted along with an
2 electron neutrino.
Albert Einstein's mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc , where m
is the mass loss and c is the speed of light. This deficit is part of the
binding energy of the new nucleus, and it is the non-recoverable loss of the energy that causes the fused particles to
remain together in a state that requires this energy to separate.[22]
The fusion of two nuclei that create larger nuclei with lower atomic numbers than iron and nickel—a total nucleon
number of about 60—is usually an exothermic process that releases more energy than is required to bring them
together. It is this energy-releasing process that makes nuclear fusion in stars a self-sustaining reaction. For heavier
nuclei, the binding energy per nucleon in the nucleus begins to decrease. That means fusion processes producing
nuclei that have atomic numbers higher than about 26, and atomic masses higher than about 60, is an endothermic
process. These more massive nuclei can not undergo an energy-producing fusion reaction that can sustain the
hydrostatic equilibrium of a star.
Electron cloud
The electrons in an atom are attracted to the protons in the nucleus by
the electromagnetic force. This force binds the electrons inside an
electrostatic potential well surrounding the smaller nucleus, which
means that an external source of energy is needed for the electron to
escape. The closer an electron is to the nucleus, the greater the
attractive force. Hence electrons bound near the center of the potential
well require more energy to escape than those at greater separations.
Electrons, like other particles, have properties of both a particle and a A potential well, showing, according to classical
wave. The electron cloud is a region inside the potential well where mechanics, the minimum energy V(x) needed to
each electron forms a type of three-dimensional standing wave—a reach each position x. Classically, a particle with
energy E is constrained to a range of positions
wave form that does not move relative to the nucleus. This behavior is
between x1 and x2.
defined by an atomic orbital, a mathematical function that characterises
the probability that an electron appears to be at a particular location
when its position is measured. Only a discrete (or quantized) set of these orbitals exist around the nucleus, as other
possible wave patterns rapidly decay into a more stable form. Orbitals can have one or more ring or node structures,
and they differ from each other in size, shape and orientation.
Atom 8
Each atomic orbital corresponds to a particular energy level of the

electron. The electron can change its state to a higher energy level by
absorbing a photon with sufficient energy to boost it into the new
quantum state. Likewise, through spontaneous emission, an electron in
Wave functions of the first five atomic orbitals. a higher energy state can drop to a lower energy state while radiating
The three 2p orbitals each display a single the excess energy as a photon. These characteristic energy values,
angular node that has an orientation and a defined by the differences in the energies of the quantum states, are
minimum at the center.
responsible for atomic spectral lines.
The amount of energy needed to remove or add an electron—the

electron binding energy—is far less than the binding energy of
nucleons. For example, it requires only 13.6 eV to strip a ground-state
electron from a hydrogen atom, compared to 2.23 million eV for
splitting a deuterium nucleus. Atoms are electrically neutral if they
have an equal number of protons and electrons. Atoms that have either
a deficit or a surplus of electrons are called ions. Electrons that are
How atoms are constructed from electron orbitals farthest from the nucleus may be transferred to other nearby atoms or
and link to the periodic table shared between atoms. By this mechanism, atoms are able to bond into
molecules and other types of chemical compounds like ionic and
covalent network crystals.[23]
Properties
Nuclear properties
By definition, any two atoms with an identical number of protons in their nuclei belong to the same chemical
element. Atoms with equal numbers of protons but a different number of neutrons are different isotopes of the same
element. For example, all hydrogen atoms admit exactly one proton, but isotopes exist with no neutrons (hydrogen-1,
by far the most common form, also called protium), one neutron (deuterium), two neutrons (tritium) and more than
two neutrons. The known elements form a set of atomic numbers, from the single proton element hydrogen up to the
118-proton element ununoctium. All known isotopes of elements with atomic numbers greater than 82 are
radioactive.[24]
About 339 nuclides occur naturally on Earth, of which 254 (about 75%) have not been observed to decay, and are
referred to as "stable isotopes". However, only 90 of these nuclides are stable to all decay, even in theory. Another
164 (bringing the total to 254) have not been observed to decay, even though in theory it is energetically possible.
These are also formally classified as "stable". An additional 34 radioactive nuclides have half-lives longer than 80
million years, and are long-lived enough to be present from the birth of the solar system. This collection of 288
nuclides are known as primordial nuclides. Finally, an additional 51 short-lived nuclides are known to occur
naturally, as daughter products of primordial nuclide decay (such as radium from uranium), or else as products of
natural energetic processes on Earth, such as cosmic ray bombardment (for example, carbon-14).[25]
For 80 of the chemical elements, at least one stable isotope exists. As a rule, there is only a handful of stable isotopes
for each of these elements, the average being 3.2 stable isotopes per element. Twenty-six elements have only a single
stable isotope, while the largest number of stable isotopes observed for any element is ten, for the element tin.
Elements 43, 61, and all elements numbered 83 or higher have no stable isotopes.[26]Wikipedia:Citing sources
Stability of isotopes is affected by the ratio of protons to neutrons, and also by the presence of certain "magic
numbers" of neutrons or protons that represent closed and filled quantum shells. These quantum shells correspond to
a set of energy levels within the shell model of the nucleus; filled shells, such as the filled shell of 50 protons for tin,
Atom 9
confers unusual stability on the nuclide. Of the 254 known stable nuclides, only four have both an odd number of
protons and odd number of neutrons: hydrogen-2 (deuterium), lithium-6, boron-10 and nitrogen-14. Also, only four
naturally occurring, radioactive odd-odd nuclides have a half-life over a billion years: potassium-40, vanadium-50,
lanthanum-138 and tantalum-180m. Most odd-odd nuclei are highly unstable with respect to beta decay, because the
decay products are even-even, and are therefore more strongly bound, due to nuclear pairing
effects.Wikipedia:Citing sources
Mass
The large majority of an atom's mass comes from the protons and neutrons that make it up. The total number of these
particles (called "nucleons") in a given atom is called the mass number. The mass number is a simple whole number,
and has units of "nucleons." An example of use of a mass number is "carbon-12," which has 12 nucleons (six protons
and six neutrons).
The actual mass of an atom at rest is often expressed using the unified atomic mass unit (u), which is also called a
dalton (Da). This unit is defined as a twelfth of the mass of a free neutral atom of carbon-12, which is approximately
1.66×10−27 kg. Hydrogen-1, the lightest isotope of hydrogen and the atom with the lowest mass, has an atomic
weight of 1.007825 u. The value of this number is called the atomic mass. A given atom has an atomic mass
approximately equal (within 1%) to its mass number times the mass of the atomic mass unit. However, this number
will not be an exact whole number except in the case of carbon-12 (see below). The heaviest stable atom is
lead-208,[24] with a mass of 207.9766521 u.
As even the most massive atoms are far too light to work with directly, chemists instead use the unit of moles. One
mole of atoms of any element always has the same number of atoms (about 6.022×1023). This number was chosen so
that if an element has an atomic mass of 1 u, a mole of atoms of that element has a mass close to one gram. Because
of the definition of the unified atomic mass unit, each carbon-12 atom has an atomic mass of exactly 12 u, and so a
mole of carbon-12 atoms weighs exactly 0.012 kg.[]Wikipedia:Citing sources
Shape and size

Atoms lack a well-defined outer boundary, so their dimensions are usually described in terms of an atomic radius.
This is a measure of the distance out to which the electron cloud extends from the nucleus. However, this assumes
the atom to exhibit a spherical shape, which is only obeyed for atoms in vacuum or free space. Atomic radii may be
derived from the distances between two nuclei when the two atoms are joined in a chemical bond. The radius varies
with the location of an atom on the atomic chart, the type of chemical bond, the number of neighboring atoms
(coordination number) and a quantum mechanical property known as spin. On the periodic table of the elements,
atom size tends to increase when moving down columns, but decrease when moving across rows (left to right).
Consequently, the smallest atom is helium with a radius of 32 pm, while one of the largest is caesium at 225 pm.[27]
When subjected to external fields, like an electrical field, the shape of an atom may deviate from that of a sphere.
The deformation depends on the field magnitude and the orbital type of outer shell electrons, as shown by
group-theoretical considerations. Aspherical deviations might be elicited for instance in crystals, where large
crystal-electrical fields may occur at low-symmetry lattice sites. Significant ellipsoidal deformations have recently
been shown to occur for sulfur ions in pyrite-type compounds.
Atomic dimensions are thousands of times smaller than the wavelengths of light (400–700 nm) so they can not be
viewed using an optical microscope. However, individual atoms can be observed using a scanning tunneling
microscope. To visualize the minuteness of the atom, consider that a typical human hair is about 1 million carbon
atoms in width. A single drop of water contains about 2 sextillion (2×1021) atoms of oxygen, and twice the number
of hydrogen atoms.[28] A single carat diamond with a mass of 2×10−4 kg contains about 10 sextillion (1022) atoms of
carbon.[29] If an apple were magnified to the size of the Earth, then the atoms in the apple would be approximately
the size of the original apple.[30]
Atom 10
Radioactive decay
Every element has one or more isotopes that
have unstable nuclei that are subject to
radioactive decay, causing the nucleus to
emit particles or electromagnetic radiation.
Radioactivity can occur when the radius of a
nucleus is large compared with the radius of
the strong force, which only acts over
distances on the order of 1 fm.
The most common forms of radioactive
decay are:[31]
• Alpha decay: this process is caused when
the nucleus emits an alpha particle, which
is a helium nucleus consisting of two
protons and two neutrons. The result of
the emission is a new element with a
lower atomic number.
• Beta decay (and electron capture): these
processes are regulated by the weak
force, and result from a transformation of
a neutron into a proton, or a proton into a
neutron. The neutron to proton transition
is accompanied by the emission of an
This diagram shows the half-life (T½) of various isotopes with Z protons and N
electron and an antineutrino, while neutrons.
proton to neutron transition (except in
electron capture) causes the emission of a positron and a neutrino. The electron or positron emissions are called
beta particles. Beta decay either increases or decreases the atomic number of the nucleus by one. Electron capture
is more common than positron emission, because it requires less energy. In this type of decay, an electron is
absorbed by the nucleus, rather than a positron emitted from the nucleus. A neutrino is still emitted in this
process, and a proton changes to a neutron.
• Gamma decay: this process results from a change in the energy level of the nucleus to a lower state, resulting in
the emission of electromagnetic radiation. The excited state of a nucleus which results in gamma emission usually
occurs following the emission of an alpha or a beta particle. Thus, gamma decay usually follows alpha or beta
decay.
Other more rare types of radioactive decay include ejection of neutrons or protons or clusters of nucleons from a
nucleus, or more than one beta particle. An analog of gamma emission which allows excited nuclei to lose energy in
a different way, is internal conversion— a process that produces high-speed electrons that are not beta rays, followed
by production of high-energy photons that are not gamma rays. A few large nuclei explode into two or more charged
fragments of varying masses plus several neutrons, in a decay called spontaneous nuclear fission.
Each radioactive isotope has a characteristic decay time period—the half-life—that is determined by the amount of
time needed for half of a sample to decay. This is an exponential decay process that steadily decreases the proportion
of the remaining isotope by 50% every half-life. Hence after two half-lives have passed only 25% of the isotope is
present, and so forth.
Atom 11
Magnetic moment
Elementary particles possess an intrinsic quantum mechanical property known as spin. This is analogous to the
angular momentum of an object that is spinning around its center of mass, although strictly speaking these particles
are believed to be point-like and cannot be said to be rotating. Spin is measured in units of the reduced Planck
constant (ħ), with electrons, protons and neutrons all having spin ½ ħ, or "spin-½". In an atom, electrons in motion
around the nucleus possess orbital angular momentum in addition to their spin, while the nucleus itself possesses
angular momentum due to its nuclear spin.
The magnetic field produced by an atom—its magnetic moment—is determined by these various forms of angular
momentum, just as a rotating charged object classically produces a magnetic field. However, the most dominant
contribution comes from spin. Due to the nature of electrons to obey the Pauli exclusion principle, in which no two
electrons may be found in the same quantum state, bound electrons pair up with each other, with one member of
each pair in a spin up state and the other in the opposite, spin down state. Thus these spins cancel each other out,
reducing the total magnetic dipole moment to zero in some atoms with even number of electrons.
In ferromagnetic elements such as iron, an odd number of electrons leads to an unpaired electron and a net overall
magnetic moment. The orbitals of neighboring atoms overlap and a lower energy state is achieved when the spins of
unpaired electrons are aligned with each other, a process known as an exchange interaction. When the magnetic
moments of ferromagnetic atoms are lined up, the material can produce a measurable macroscopic field.
Paramagnetic materials have atoms with magnetic moments that line up in random directions when no magnetic field
is present, but the magnetic moments of the individual atoms line up in the presence of a field.
The nucleus of an atom can also have a net spin. Normally these nuclei are aligned in random directions because of
thermal equilibrium. However, for certain elements (such as xenon-129) it is possible to polarize a significant
proportion of the nuclear spin states so that they are aligned in the same direction—a condition called
hyperpolarization. This has important applications in magnetic resonance imaging.[32]
Energy levels
The potential energy of an electron in an atom is negative, its
dependence of its position reaches the minimum (the most absolute
value) inside the nucleus, and vanishes when the distance from the
nucleus goes to infinity, roughly in an inverse proportion to the
distance. In the quantum-mechanical model, a bound electron can only
occupy a set of states centered on the nucleus, and each state
corresponds to a specific energy level; see time-independent
Schrödinger equation for theoretical explanation. An energy level can These electron's energy levels (not to scale) are
be measured by the amount of energy needed to unbind the electron sufficient for ground states of atoms up to
cadmium (5s2 4d10) inclusively. Do not forget
from the atom, and is usually given in units of electronvolts (eV). The
that even the top of the diagram is lower than an
lowest energy state of a bound electron is called the ground unbound electron state.
state,Wikipedia:Please clarify while an electron transition to a higher
level results in an excited state. The electron's energy raises when n increases because the (average) distance to the
nucleus increases. Dependence of the energy on ℓ is caused not by electrostatic potential of the nucleus, but by
interaction between electrons.
For an electron to transition between two different states, it must[citation needed] absorb or emit a photon at an energy
matching the difference in the potential energy of those levels. The energy of an emitted photon is proportional to its
frequency, so these specific energy levels appear as distinct bands in the electromagnetic spectrum.[33] Each element
has a characteristic spectrum that can depend on the nuclear charge, subshells filled by electrons, the electromagnetic
interactions between the electrons and other factors.
Atom 12
When a continuous spectrum of energy is

passed through a gas or plasma, some of the
photons are absorbed by atoms, causing
electrons to change their energy level. Those
excited electrons that remain bound to their
atom spontaneously emit this energy as a
photon, traveling in a random direction, and An example of absorption lines in a spectrum
so drop back to lower energy levels. Thus

the atoms behave like a filter that forms a series of dark absorption bands in the energy output. (An observer viewing
the atoms from a view that does not include the continuous spectrum in the background, instead sees a series of
emission lines from the photons emitted by the atoms.) Spectroscopic measurements of the strength and width of
atomic spectral lines allow the composition and physical properties of a substance to be determined.
Close examination of the spectral lines reveals that some display a fine structure splitting. This occurs because of
spin–orbit coupling, which is an interaction between the spin and motion of the outermost electron. When an atom is
in an external magnetic field, spectral lines become split into three or more components; a phenomenon called the
Zeeman effect. This is caused by the interaction of the magnetic field with the magnetic moment of the atom and its
electrons. Some atoms can have multiple electron configurations with the same energy level, which thus appear as a
single spectral line. The interaction of the magnetic field with the atom shifts these electron configurations to slightly
different energy levels, resulting in multiple spectral lines. The presence of an external electric field can cause a
comparable splitting and shifting of spectral lines by modifying the electron energy levels, a phenomenon called the
Stark effect.[34]
If a bound electron is in an excited state, an interacting photon with the proper energy can cause stimulated emission
of a photon with a matching energy level. For this to occur, the electron must drop to a lower energy state that has an
energy difference matching the energy of the interacting photon. The emitted photon and the interacting photon then
move off in parallel and with matching phases. That is, the wave patterns of the two photons are synchronized. This
physical property is used to make lasers, which can emit a coherent beam of light energy in a narrow frequency
band.
Valence and bonding behavior

The outermost electron shell of an atom in its uncombined state is known as the valence shell, and the electrons in
that shell are called valence electrons. The number of valence electrons determines the bonding behavior with other
atoms. Atoms tend to chemically react with each other in a manner that fills (or empties) their outer valence shells.
For example, a transfer of a single electron between atoms is a useful approximation for bonds that form between
atoms with one-electron more than a filled shell, and others that are one-electron short of a full shell, such as occurs
in the compound sodium chloride and other chemical ionic salts. However, many elements display multiple valences,
or tendencies to share differing numbers of electrons in different compounds. Thus, chemical bonding between these
elements takes many forms of electron-sharing that are more than simple electron transfers. Examples include the
element carbon and the organic compounds.
The chemical elements are often displayed in a periodic table that is laid out to display recurring chemical properties,
and elements with the same number of valence electrons form a group that is aligned in the same column of the
table. (The horizontal rows correspond to the filling of a quantum shell of electrons.) The elements at the far right of
the table have their outer shell completely filled with electrons, which results in chemically inert elements known as
the noble gases.
Atom 13
States
Quantities of atoms are found in different states of matter that depend
on the physical conditions, such as temperature and pressure. By
varying the conditions, materials can transition between solids, liquids,
gases and plasmas. [35] Within a state, a material can also exist in
different allotropes. An example of this is solid carbon, which can exist
as graphite or diamond. Gaseous allotropes exist as well, such as
dioxygen and ozone.
At temperatures close to absolute zero, atoms can form a

Snapshots illustrating the formation of a
Bose–Einstein condensate Bose–Einstein condensate, at which point quantum mechanical effects,
which are normally only observed at the atomic scale, become apparent
[36]
on a macroscopic scale. This super-cooled collection of atoms then behaves as a single super atom, which may
allow fundamental checks of quantum mechanical behavior.
Identification
The scanning tunneling microscope is a device for viewing surfaces at
the atomic level. It uses the quantum tunneling phenomenon, which
allows particles to pass through a barrier that would normally be
insurmountable. Electrons tunnel through the vacuum between two
planar metal electrodes, on each of which is an adsorbed atom,
providing a tunneling-current density that can be measured. Scanning
one atom (taken as the tip) as it moves past the other (the sample)
permits plotting of tip displacement versus lateral separation for a
constant current. The calculation shows the extent to which
scanning-tunneling-microscope images of an individual atom are
visible. It confirms that for low bias, the microscope images the
space-averaged dimensions of the electron orbitals across closely Scanning tunneling microscope image showing
the individual atoms making up this gold (100)
packed energy levels—the Fermi level local density of states.
surface. Reconstruction causes the surface atoms
An atom can be ionized by removing one of its electrons. The electric to deviate from the bulk crystal structure and
arrange in columns several atoms wide with pits
charge causes the trajectory of an atom to bend when it passes through
between them.
a magnetic field. The radius by which the trajectory of a moving ion is
turned by the magnetic field is determined by the mass of the atom.
The mass spectrometer uses this principle to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. If a sample contains multiple
isotopes, the mass spectrometer can determine the proportion of each isotope in the sample by measuring the
intensity of the different beams of ions. Techniques to vaporize atoms include inductively coupled plasma atomic
emission spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, both of which use a plasma to vaporize
samples for analysis.
A more area-selective method is electron energy loss spectroscopy, which measures the energy loss of an electron
beam within a transmission electron microscope when it interacts with a portion of a sample. The atom-probe
tomograph has sub-nanometer resolution in 3-D and can chemically identify individual atoms using time-of-flight
mass spectrometry.
Spectra of excited states can be used to analyze the atomic composition of distant stars. Specific light wavelengths
contained in the observed light from stars can be separated out and related to the quantized transitions in free gas
atoms. These colors can be replicated using a gas-discharge lamp containing the same element. Helium was
Atom 14
discovered in this way in the spectrum of the Sun 23 years before it was found on Earth.
Origin and current state

Atoms form about 4% of the total energy density of the observable Universe, with an average density of about
0.25 atoms/m3. Within a galaxy such as the Milky Way, atoms have a much higher concentration, with the density of
matter in the interstellar medium (ISM) ranging from 105 to 109 atoms/m3.[37] The Sun is believed to be inside the
Local Bubble, a region of highly ionized gas, so the density in the solar neighborhood is only about 103 atoms/m3.
Stars form from dense clouds in the ISM, and the evolutionary processes of stars result in the steady enrichment of
the ISM with elements more massive than hydrogen and helium. Up to 95% of the Milky Way's atoms are
concentrated inside stars and the total mass of atoms forms about 10% of the mass of the galaxy.[38] (The remainder
of the mass is an unknown dark matter.)
Formation
Electrons are thought to exist in the Universe since early stages of the Big Bang. Atomic nuclei forms in
nucleosynthesis reactions. In about three minutes Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced most of the helium, lithium,
and deuterium in the Universe, and perhaps some of the beryllium and boron.
Ubiquitousness and stability of atoms relies on their binding energy, which means that an atom has a lower energy
than an unbound system of the nucleus and electrons. Where the temperature is much higher than ionization
potential, the matter exists in the form of plasma – a gas of positively-charged ions (possibly, bare nuclei) and
electrons. When the temperature drops below the ionization potential, atoms become statistically favorable. Atoms
(complete with bound electrons) became to dominate over charged particles 380,000 years after the Big Bang—an
epoch called recombination, when the expanding Universe cooled enough to allow electrons to become attached to
nuclei.
Since the Big Bang, which produced no carbon or heavier elements, atomic nuclei have been combined in stars
through the process of nuclear fusion to produce more of the element helium, and (via the triple alpha process) the
sequence of elements from carbon up to iron; see stellar nucleosynthesis for details.
Isotopes such as lithium-6, as well as some beryllium and boron are generated in space through cosmic ray
spallation. This occurs when a high-energy proton strikes an atomic nucleus, causing large numbers of nucleons to
be ejected.
Elements heavier than iron were produced in supernovae through the r-process and in AGB stars through the
s-process, both of which involve the capture of neutrons by atomic nuclei. Elements such as lead formed largely
through the radioactive decay of heavier elements.
Earth
Most of the atoms that make up the Earth and its inhabitants were present in their current form in the nebula that
collapsed out of a molecular cloud to form the Solar System. The rest are the result of radioactive decay, and their
relative proportion can be used to determine the age of the Earth through radiometric dating.[39] Most of the helium
in the crust of the Earth (about 99% of the helium from gas wells, as shown by its lower abundance of helium-3) is a
product of alpha decay.
There are a few trace atoms on Earth that were not present at the beginning (i.e., not "primordial"), nor are results of
radioactive decay. Carbon-14 is continuously generated by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. Some atoms on Earth
have been artificially generated either deliberately or as by-products of nuclear reactors or explosions. Of the
transuranic elements—those with atomic numbers greater than 92—only plutonium and neptunium occur naturally
on Earth. Transuranic elements have radioactive lifetimes shorter than the current age of the Earth[40] and thus
identifiable quantities of these elements have long since decayed, with the exception of traces of plutonium-244
Atom 15
possibly deposited by cosmic dust.[41] Natural deposits of plutonium and neptunium are produced by neutron capture
in uranium ore.
The Earth contains approximately 1.33×1050 atoms. Although small numbers of independent atoms of noble gases
exist, such as argon, neon, and helium, 99% of the atmosphere is bound in the form of molecules, including carbon
dioxide and diatomic oxygen and nitrogen. At the surface of the Earth, an overwhelming majority of atoms combine
to form various compounds, including water, salt, silicates and oxides. Atoms can also combine to create materials
that do not consist of discrete molecules, including crystals and liquid or solid metals. This atomic matter forms
networked arrangements that lack the particular type of small-scale interrupted order associated with molecular
matter.[42]
Rare and theoretical forms
Superheavy elements
While isotopes with atomic numbers higher than lead (82) are known to be radioactive, an "island of stability" has
been proposed for some elements with atomic numbers above 103. These superheavy elements may have a nucleus
that is relatively stable against radioactive decay. The most likely candidate for a stable superheavy atom,
unbihexium, has 126 protons and 184 neutrons.
Exotic matter
Each particle of matter has a corresponding antimatter particle with the opposite electrical charge. Thus, the positron
is a positively charged antielectron and the antiproton is a negatively charged equivalent of a proton. When a matter
and corresponding antimatter particle meet, they annihilate each other. Because of this, along with an imbalance
between the number of matter and antimatter particles, the latter are rare in the universe. The first causes of this
imbalance are not yet fully understood, although theories of baryogenesis may offer an explanation. As a result, no
antimatter atoms have been discovered in nature. However, in 1996 the antimatter counterpart of the hydrogen atom
(antihydrogen) was synthesized at the CERN laboratory in Geneva.
Other exotic atoms have been created by replacing one of the protons, neutrons or electrons with other particles that
have the same charge. For example, an electron can be replaced by a more massive muon, forming a muonic atom.
These types of atoms can be used to test the fundamental predictions of physics.
Notes
[1] In the case of hydrogen-1, with a single electron and nucleon, the proton is UNIQ-math-0-19b700d988ba3161-QINU , or 99.946% of the total
atomic mass. All other nuclides (isotopes of hydrogen and all other elements) have more nucleons than electrons, so the fraction of mass taken
by the nucleus is significantly closer to 100% for all of these types of atoms, than for hydrogen-1.
[2] Harrison 2003, pp. 123–139.
[3] Lederman provides an excellent discussion of this point, and this debate.
[4] Ponomarev 1993, pp. 14–15.
[5] McEvilley 2002, p. 317.
[6] King 1999, pp. 105–107.
[7] Moran 2005, p. 146.
[8] Levere 2001, p. 7.
[9] Siegfried 2002, pp. 42–55.
[10] Wurtz 1881, pp. 1–2.
[11] Dalton 1808.
[12] Roscoe 1895, pp. 129.
[13] Mazo 2002, pp. 1–7.
[14] Scerri 2007, pp. 10–17.
[15] Pais 1986, pp. 228–230.
[16] Scerri 2007, pp. 205–226.
[17] Demtröder 2002, pp. 39–42.
Atom 16
[18] Woan 2000, p. 8.

[19] MacGregor 1992, pp. 33–37.
[20] Jevremovic 2005, p. 63.
[21] Pfeffer 2000, pp. 330–336.
[22] Shultis & Faw 2002, pp. 10–17.
[23] Smirnov 2003, pp. 249–272.
[24] Sills 2003, pp. 131–134.
[25] For more recent updates see Interactive Chart of Nuclides (Brookhaven National Laboratory) (http:/ / www. nndc. bnl. gov/ chart).
[26] CRC Handbook (2002).
[27] Zumdahl (2002).
[28] Padilla et al. (2002:32)—"There are 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that's 2 sextillion) atoms of oxygen in one drop of water—and twice as
many atoms of hydrogen."
[29] A carat is 200 milligrams. By definition, carbon-12 has 0.012 kg per mole. The Avogadro constant defines atoms per mole.
[30] Feynman 1995, p. 5.
[31] L'Annunziata 2003, pp. 3–56.
[32] Liang & Haacke 1999, pp. 412–426.
[33] Fowles (1989:227–233).
[34] Beyer 2003, pp. 232–236.
[35] Goodstein 2002, pp. 436–438.
[36] Myers 2003, p. 85.
[37] Choppin, Liljenzin & Rydberg 2001, p. 441.
[38] Lequeux 2005, p. 4.
[39] Manuel 2001, pp. 407–430, 511–519.
[40] Zaider & Rossi 2001, p. 17.
[41] Manuel 2001, pp. 407–430,511–519.
[42] Pauling 1960, pp. 5–10.
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Atomic nucleus 19
Atomic nucleus
Nuclear physics
Nucleus · Nucleons (p, n) · Nuclear force · Nuclear reaction
The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and

neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911 as a result
of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold
foil experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden under
Rutherford's direction. The proton–neutron model of nucleus was
proposed by Dmitry Ivanenko in 1932. Almost all of the mass of an
atom is located in the nucleus, with a very small contribution from the
electron cloud.
The diameter of the nucleus is in the range of 1.75 fm (1.75×10−15 m)

for hydrogen (the diameter of a single proton)Wikipedia:Verifiability
to about 15 fm for the heaviest atoms, such as uranium. These
dimensions are much smaller than the diameter of the atom itself A model of the atomic nucleus showing it as a
compact bundle of the two types of nucleons:
(nucleus + electron cloud), by a factor of about 23,000 (uranium) to
protons (red) and neutrons (blue). In this diagram,
about 145,000 (hydrogen).[citation needed] protons and neutrons look like little balls stuck
The branch of physics concerned with studying and understanding the together, but an actual nucleus (as understood by
modern nuclear physics) cannot be explained like
atomic nucleus, including its composition and the forces which bind it
this, but only by using quantum mechanics. In a
together, is called nuclear physics. nucleus which occupies a certain energy level (for
example, the ground state), each nucleon has
multiple locations at once.
Introduction
History
The nucleus was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's efforts to test Thomson's "plum pudding
model" of the atom. The electron had already been discovered earlier by J.J. Thomson himself, and knowing that
atoms are neutral, Thomson postulated that there must be a positive charge as well. In his plum pudding model,
Thomson stated that an atom consisted of negative electrons randomly scattered within a sphere of positive charge.
Ernest Rutherford later devised an experiment that involved the deflection of alpha particles at a thin sheet of metal
foil. He reasoned that if Thomson's model were correct, the immense alpha particles would easily pass through the
foil with very little deviation in their paths. To his surprise, many of the particles were deflected at very large angles.
Because the mass of alpha particles is about 8000 times that of an electron, it became apparent that a very strong
force was present that allowed the particles to be deflected. He realized that the plum pudding model could not be
accurate and that the deflections of the alpha particles could only be caused by a center of concentrated charge that
contained most of the atom's mass. Thus, the idea of a nuclear atom—an atom with a dense center of positive
charge—became justified.
Atomic nucleus 20
Etymology
The term nucleus is from the Latin word nucleus, a diminutive of nux ("nut"), meaning the kernel (i.e., the "small
nut") inside a watery type of fruit (like a peach). In 1844, Michael Faraday used the term to refer to the "central point
of an atom". The modern atomic meaning was proposed by Ernest Rutherford in 1912. The adoption of the term
"nucleus" to atomic theory, however, was not immediate. In 1916, for example, Gilbert N. Lewis stated, in his
famous article The Atom and the Molecule, that "the atom is composed of the kernel and an outer atom or shell"
Nuclear makeup
The nucleus of an atom consists of protons
and neutrons (two types of baryons) bound
by the nuclear force (also known as the
residual strong force). These baryons are
further composed of subatomic fundamental
particles known as quarks bound by the
strong interaction. Which chemical element
an atom represents is determined by the
number of protons in the nucleus. Each
proton carries a single positive charge, and
the total electrical charge of the nucleus is
spread fairly uniformly throughout its body,
with a fall-off at the edge.
Major exceptions to this rule are the light

elements hydrogen and helium, where the
charge is concentrated most highly at the
single central point (without a central
volume of uniform charge). This
configuration is the same as for 1s electrons A figurative depiction of the helium-4 atom with the electron cloud in shades of
in atomic orbitals, and is the expected gray. In the nucleus, the two protons and two neutrons are depicted in red and blue.
This depiction shows the particles as separate, whereas in an actual helium atom,
density distribution for fermions (in this
the protons are superimposed in space and most likely found at the very center of
case, protons) in 1s states without orbital the nucleus, and the same is true of the two neutrons. Thus, all four particles are
angular momentum. most likely found in exactly the same space, at the central point. Classical images
of separate particles fail to model known charge distributions in very small nuclei.
As each proton carries a unit of charge, the A more accurate image is that the spatial distribution of nucleons in helium's
charge distribution is indicative of the nucleus, although on a far smaller scale, is much closer to the helium electron
proton distribution. The neutron distribution cloud shown here, than to the fanciful nucleus image.
probably is similar.
While protons define the entire charge of a nucleus and, hence, its chemical identity, neutrons are electrically neutral,
but contribute to the mass of a nucleus to the same extent. Neutrons explain the phenomenon of isotopes – varieties
of a chemical element which differ in atomic mass.
Protons and neutrons

Protons and neutrons are fermions, with different values of the strong isospin quantum number, so two protons and
two neutrons can share the same space wave function since they are not identical quantum entities. They sometimes
are viewed as two different quantum states of the same particle, the nucleon. Two fermions, such as two protons, or
two neutrons, or a proton + neutron (the deuteron) can exhibit bosonic behavior when they become loosely bound in
Atomic nucleus 21
pairs.
In the rare case of a hypernucleus, a third baryon called a hyperon, with a different value of the strangeness quantum
number can also share the wave function. However, the latter type of nuclei are extremely unstable and are not found
on Earth except in high energy physics experiments.
The neutron has a positively charged core of radius ≈ 0.3 fm surrounded by a compensating negative charge of
radius between 0.3 fm and 2 fm. The proton has an approximately exponentially decaying positive charge
distribution with a mean square radius of about 0.8 fm.
Forces
Nuclei are bound together by the residual strong force (nuclear force). The residual strong force is a minor residuum
of the strong interaction which binds quarks together to form protons and neutrons. This force is much weaker
between neutrons and protons because it is mostly neutralized within them, in the same way that electromagnetic
forces between neutral atoms (such as van der Waals forces that act between two inert gas atoms) are much weaker
than the electromagnetic forces that hold the parts of the atoms internally together (for example, the forces that hold
the electrons in an inert gas atom bound to its nucleus).
The nuclear force is highly attractive at the distance of typical nucleon separation, and this overwhelms the repulsion
between protons which is due to the electromagnetic force, thus allowing nuclei to exist. However, because the
residual strong force has a limited range because it decays quickly with distance (see Yukawa potential), only nuclei
smaller than a certain size can be completely stable. The largest known completely stable (e.g., stable to alpha, beta,
and gamma decay) nucleus is lead-208 which contains a total of 208 nucleons (126 neutrons and 82 protons). Nuclei
larger than this maximal size of 208 particles are unstable and (as a trend) become increasingly short-lived with
larger size, as the number of neutrons and protons which compose them increases beyond this number. However,
bismuth-209 is also stable to beta decay and has the longest half-life to alpha decay of any known isotope, estimated
at a billion times longer than the age of the universe.
The residual strong force is effective over a very short range (usually only a few fermis; roughly one or two nucleon
diameters) and causes an attraction between any pair of nucleons. For example, between protons and neutrons to
form [NP] deuteron, and also between protons and protons, and neutrons and neutrons.
Halo nuclei and strong force range limits

The effective absolute limit of the range of the strong force is represented by halo nuclei such as lithium-11 or
boron-14, in which dineutrons, or other collections of neutrons, orbit at distances of about ten fermis (roughly similar
to the 8 fermi radius of the nucleus of uranium-238). These nuclei are not maximally dense. Halo nuclei form at the
extreme edges of the chart of the nuclides—the neutron drip line and proton drip line—and are all unstable with
short half-lives, measured in milliseconds; for example, lithium-11 has a half-life of less than 8.6 milliseconds.
Halos in effect represent an excited state with nucleons in an outer quantum shell which has unfilled energy levels
"below" it (both in terms of radius and energy). The halo may be made of either neutrons [NN, NNN] or protons [PP,
PPP]. Nuclei which have a single neutron halo include 11Be and 19C. A two-neutron halo is exhibited by 6He, 11Li,
17 19
B, B and 22C. Two-neutron halo nuclei break into three fragments, never two, and are called Borromean because
of this behavior (referring to a system of three interlocked rings in which breaking any ring frees both of the others).
8
He and 14Be both exhibit a four-neutron halo. Nuclei which have a proton halo include 8B and 26P. A two-proton
halo is exhibited by 17Ne and 27S. Proton halos are expected to be more rare and unstable than the neutron examples,
because of the repulsive electromagnetic forces of the excess proton(s).
Atomic nucleus 22
Nuclear models
Although the standard model of physics is widely believed to completely describe the composition and behavior of
the nucleus, theoretically generating predictions from it is much more difficult than for most other areas of particle
physics. This is essentially because perturbation theory, a widely used mathematical tool, is not applicable to
quantum chromodynamics (the theory of the strong force) at the energy scales relevant to the nucleus. As a result,
experiments have historically been compared to relatively crude models which are necessarily imperfect. None of
these models completely explain experimental data on nuclear structure.
The nuclear radius (R) is considered to be one of the basic quantities that any model must predict. For stable nuclei
(not halo nuclei or other unstable distorted nuclei) the nuclear radius is roughly proportional to the cube root of the
mass number (A) of the nucleus, and particularly in nuclei containing many nucleons, as they arrange in more
spherical configurations:
The stable nucleus has approximately a constant density and therefore the nuclear radius R can be approximated by
the following formula,
where A = Atomic mass number (the number of protons Z, plus the number of neutrons N) and
r0 = 1.25 fm = 1.25 × 10−15 m. In this equation, the constant r0 varies by 0.2 fm, depending on the nucleus in
question, but this is less than 20% change from a constant.
In other words, packing protons and neutrons in the nucleus gives approximately the same total size result as packing
hard spheres of a constant size (like marbles) into a tight spherical or almost spherical bag (some stable nuclei are
not quite spherical, but are known to be prolate).[citation needed]
Liquid drop models

Early models of the nucleus viewed the nucleus as a rotating liquid drop. In this model, the trade-off of long-range
electromagnetic forces and relatively short-range nuclear forces, together cause behavior which resembled surface
tension forces in liquid drops of different sizes. This formula is successful at explaining many important phenomena
of nuclei, such as their changing amounts of binding energy as their size and composition changes (see
semi-empirical mass formula), but it does not explain the special stability which occurs when nuclei have special
"magic numbers" of protons or neutrons.
Shell models and other quantum models

A number of models for the nucleus have also been proposed in which nucleons occupy orbitals, much like the
atomic orbitals in atomic physics theory. These wave models imagine nucleons to be either sizeless point particles in
potential wells, or else probability waves as in the "optical model", frictionlessly orbiting at high speed in potential
wells.
In the above models, the nucleons may occupy orbitals in pairs, due to being fermions, which allows to explain
even/odd Z and N effects well-known from experiments. The exact nature and capacity of nuclear shells differs from
those of electrons in atomic orbitals, primarily because the potential well in which the nucleons move (especially in
larger nuclei) is quite different from the central electromagnetic potential well which binds electrons in atoms. Some
resemblance to atomic orbital models may be seen in a small atomic nucleus like that of helium-4, in which the two
protons and two neutrons separately occupy 1s orbitals analogous to the 1s orbital for the two electrons in the helium
atom, and achieve unusual stability for the same reason. Nuclei with 5 nucleons are all extremely unstable and
short-lived, yet, helium-3, with 3 nucleons, is very stable even with lack of a closed 1s orbital shell. Another nucleus
with 3 nucleons, the triton hydrogen-3 is unstable and will decay into helium-3 when isolated. Weak nuclear stability
with 2 nucleons {NP} in the 1s orbital is found in the deuteron hydrogen-2, with only one nucleon in each of the
proton and neutron potential wells. While each nucleon is a fermion, the {NP} deuteron is a boson and thus does not
Atomic nucleus 23
follow Pauli Exclusion for close packing within shells. Lithium-6 with 6 nucleons is highly stable without a closed
second 1p shell orbital. For light nuclei with total nucleon numbers 1 to 6 only those with 5 do not show some
evidence of stability. Observations of beta-stability of light nuclei outside closed shells indicate that nuclear stability
is much more complex than simple closure of shell orbitals with magic numbers of protons and neutrons.
For larger nuclei, the shells occupied by nucleons begin to differ significantly from electron shells, but nevertheless,
present nuclear theory does predict the magic numbers of filled nuclear shells for both protons and neutrons. The
closure of the stable shells predicts unusually stable configurations, analogous to the noble group of nearly-inert
gases in chemistry. An example is the stability of the closed shell of 50 protons, which allows tin to have 10 stable
isotopes, more than any other element. Similarly, the distance from shell-closure explains the unusual instability of
isotopes which have far from stable numbers of these particles, such as the radioactive elements 43 (technetium) and
61 (promethium), each of which is preceded and followed by 17 or more stable elements.
There are however problems with the shell model when an attempt is made to account for nuclear properties well
away from closed shells. This has led to complex post hoc distortions of the shape of the potential well to fit
experimental data, but the question remains whether these mathematical manipulations actually correspond to the
spatial deformations in real nuclei. Problems with the shell model have led some to propose realistic two-body and
three-body nuclear force effects involving nucleon clusters and then build the nucleus on this basis. Two such cluster
models are the Close-Packed Spheron Model of Linus Pauling and the 2D Ising Model of MacGregor.
Consistency between models

As with the case of superfluid liquid helium, atomic nuclei are an example of a state in which both (1) "ordinary"
particle physical rules for volume and (2) non-intuitive quantum mechanical rules for a wave-like nature apply. In
superfluid helium, the helium atoms have volume, and essentially "touch" each other, yet at the same time exhibit
strange bulk properties, consistent with a Bose–Einstein condensation. The latter reveals that they also have a
wave-like nature and do not exhibit standard fluid properties, such as friction. For nuclei made of hadrons which are
fermions, the same type of condensation does not occur, yet nevertheless, many nuclear properties can only be
explained similarly by a combination of properties of particles with volume, in addition to the frictionless motion
characteristic of the wave-like behavior of objects trapped in Erwin Schrödinger's quantum orbitals.
References
External links
• The Nucleus – a chapter from an online textbook (http://www.lightandmatter.com/html_books/4em/ch02/
ch02.html)
• The LIVEChart of Nuclides – IAEA (http://www-nds.iaea.org/livechart) in Java (http://www-nds.iaea.org/
livechart) or HTML (http://www-nds.iaea.org/relnsd/vcharthtml/VChartHTML.html)
• Article on the "nuclear shell model," giving nuclear shell filling for the various elements (http://www.
halexandria.org/dward472.htm). Accessed Sept. 16, 2009.
• Timeline: Subatomic Concepts, Nuclear Science & Technology (http://nagysandor.eu/nuklearis/timeline/
index.html).
Electron 24
Electron
Electron
Experiments with a Crookes tube first demonstrated the particle nature of electrons. In this illustration, the profile of the Maltese-cross-shaped
target is projected against the tube face at right by a beam of electrons.
Composition Elementary particle
Statistics Fermionic
Generation First
Interactions Gravity, Electromagnetic, Weak
Symbol e−, β−
Antiparticle Positron (also called antielectron)
Theorized Richard Laming (1838–1851),

G. Johnstone Stoney (1874) and others.
Discovered J. J. Thomson (1897)
Mass 9.10938291(40)×10−31 kg
5.4857990946(22)×10−4 u
[1]
[1,822.8884845(14)]−1 u
0.510998928(11) MeV/c2
Electric charge [2]
−1 e
−1.602176565(35)×10−19 C
−4.80320451(10)×10−10 esu
Magnetic moment −1.00115965218076(27) μB
Spin 1
⁄2
The electron (symbol: e−) is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the
first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have
no known components or substructure. The electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton.
Quantum mechanical properties of the electron include an intrinsic angular momentum (spin) of a half-integer value
in units of ħ, which means that it is a fermion. Being fermions, no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state,
in accordance with the Pauli exclusion principle. Electrons also have properties of both particles and waves, and so
can collide with other particles and can be diffracted like light. Experiments with electrons best demonstrate this
duality because electrons have a tiny mass.
Electron 25
Many physical phenomena involve electrons in an essential role, such as electricity, magnetism, and thermal
conductivity, and they also participate in gravitational, electromagnetic and weak interactions. An electron moving
relative to an observer generates a magnetic field; external magnetic fields will deflect an electron. Electrons radiate
or absorb energy in the form of photons when accelerated. The antiparticle of the electron is called the positron; it is
identical to the electron except that it carries electrical and other charges of the opposite sign. When an electron
collides with a positron, both particles may be totally annihilated, producing gamma ray photons.
The interaction between positive atomic nuclei (composed of protons and neutrons) and electrons through Coulomb
force, compose atoms. Ionization or changes in the proportions of particles changes the binding energy of the
system. The exchange or sharing of the electrons between two or more atoms is the main cause of chemical bonding.
British natural philosopher Richard Laming first hypothesized the concept of an indivisible quantity of electric
charge to explain the chemical properties of atoms in 1838; Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney named this
charge 'electron' in 1891, and J. J. Thomson and his team of British physicists identified it as a particle in 1897.[3]
Laboratory instruments are capable of containing and observing individual electrons as well as electron plasma,
whereas dedicated telescopes can detect electron plasma in outer space.
Electrons may be absorbed during nucleosynthesis in stars. Electrons may be created through beta decay of
radioactive isotopes and in high-energy collisions, for instance when cosmic rays enter the atmosphere. Electrons
have many applications, including in electronics, welding, cathode ray tubes, electron microscopes, radiation
therapy, lasers, gaseous ionization detectors and particle accelerators.
History
The ancient Greeks noticed that amber attracted small objects when rubbed with fur. Along with lightning, this
phenomenon is one of humanity's earliest recorded experiences with electricity. In his 1600 treatise De Magnete, the
English scientist William Gilbert coined the New Latin term electricus, to refer to this property of attracting small
objects after being rubbed. Both electric and electricity are derived from the Latin ēlectrum (also the root of the alloy
of the same name), which came from the Greek word for amber, ήλεκτρον (ēlektron).
In the early 1700s, Francis Hauksbee and French chemist Charles François de Fay independently discovered what
they believed to be two kinds of frictional electricity; one generated from rubbing glass, the other from rubbing resin.
From this, Du Fay theorized that electricity consists of two electrical fluids, "vitreous" and "resinous", that are
separated by friction and that neutralize each other when combined. A decade later Benjamin Franklin proposed that
electricity was not from different types of electrical fluid, but the same electrical fluid under different pressures. He
gave them the modern charge nomenclature of positive and negative respectively. Franklin thought of the charge
carrier as being positive, but he did not correctly identify which situation was a surplus of the charge carrier, and
which situation was a deficit.
Between 1838 and 1851, British natural philosopher Richard Laming developed the idea that an atom is composed of
a core of matter surrounded by subatomic particles that had unit electric charges. Beginning in 1846, German
physicist William Weber theorized that electricity was composed of positively and negatively charged fluids, and
their interaction was governed by the inverse square law. After studying the phenomenon of electrolysis in 1874,
Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney suggested that there existed a "single definite quantity of electricity", the
charge of a monovalent ion. He was able to estimate the value of this elementary charge e by means of Faraday's
laws of electrolysis. However, Stoney believed these charges were permanently attached to atoms and could not be
removed. In 1881, German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz argued that both positive and negative charges were
divided into elementary parts, each of which "behaves like atoms of electricity".
In 1891 Stoney coined the term electron to describe these elementary charges, writing later in 1894: "... an estimate
was made of the actual amount of this most remarkable fundamental unit of electricity, for which I have since
ventured to suggest the name electron". The word electron is a combination of the words electr(ic) and (i)on.[4] The
suffix -on which is now used to designate other subatomic particles, such as a proton or neutron, is in turn derived
Electron 26
from electron.
Discovery
The German physicist Johann Wilhelm Hittorf studied electrical
conductivity in rarefied gases: in 1869, he discovered a glow emitted
from the cathode that increased in size with decrease in gas pressure. In
1876, the German physicist Eugen Goldstein showed that the rays from
this glow cast a shadow, and he dubbed the rays cathode rays.[5]
During the 1870s, the English chemist and physicist Sir William
Crookes developed the first cathode ray tube to have a high vacuum
inside. He then showed that the luminescence rays appearing within the
A beam of electrons deflected in a circle by a
tube carried energy and moved from the cathode to the anode. magnetic field
Furthermore, by applying a magnetic field, he was able to deflect the
rays, thereby demonstrating that the beam behaved as though it were negatively charged.[6] In 1879, he proposed that
these properties could be explained by what he termed 'radiant matter'. He suggested that this was a fourth state of
matter, consisting of negatively charged molecules that were being projected with high velocity from the cathode.
The German-born British physicist Arthur Schuster expanded upon Crookes' experiments by placing metal plates
parallel to the cathode rays and applying an electric potential between the plates. The field deflected the rays toward
the positively charged plate, providing further evidence that the rays carried negative charge. By measuring the
amount of deflection for a given level of current, in 1890 Schuster was able to estimate the charge-to-mass ratio of
the ray components. However, this produced a value that was more than a thousand times greater than what was
expected, so little credence was given to his calculations at the time.[7]
In 1892 Hendrik Lorentz suggested that the mass of these particles (electrons) could be a consequence of their
electric charge.[8]
In 1896, the British physicist J. J. Thomson, with his colleagues John S. Townsend and H. A. Wilson, performed
experiments indicating that cathode rays really were unique particles, rather than waves, atoms or molecules as was
believed earlier. Thomson made good estimates of both the charge e and the mass m, finding that cathode ray
particles, which he called "corpuscles," had perhaps one thousandth of the mass of the least massive ion known:
hydrogen. He showed that their charge to mass ratio, e/m, was independent of cathode material. He further showed
that the negatively charged particles produced by radioactive materials, by heated materials and by illuminated
materials were universal. The name electron was again proposed for these particles by the Irish physicist George F.
Fitzgerald, and the name has since gained universal acceptance.
While studying naturally fluorescing minerals in 1896, the French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered that they
emitted radiation without any exposure to an external energy source. These radioactive materials became the subject
of much interest by scientists, including the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford who discovered they emitted
particles. He designated these particles alpha and beta, on the basis of their ability to penetrate matter. In 1900,
Becquerel showed that the beta rays emitted by radium could be deflected by an electric field, and that their
mass-to-charge ratio was the same as for cathode rays. This evidence strengthened the view that electrons existed as
components of atoms.[9]
The electron's charge was more carefully measured by the American physicists Robert Millikan and Harvey Fletcher
in their oil-drop experiment of 1909, the results of which were published in 1911. This experiment used an electric
field to prevent a charged droplet of oil from falling as a result of gravity. This device could measure the electric
charge from as few as 1–150 ions with an error margin of less than 0.3%. Comparable experiments had been done
earlier by Thomson's team, using clouds of charged water droplets generated by electrolysis, and in 1911 by Abram
Ioffe, who independently obtained the same result as Millikan using charged microparticles of metals, then published
Electron 27
his results in 1913.[10] However, oil drops were more stable than water drops because of their slower evaporation
rate, and thus more suited to precise experimentation over longer periods of time.
Around the beginning of the twentieth century, it was found that under certain conditions a fast-moving charged
particle caused a condensation of supersaturated water vapor along its path. In 1911, Charles Wilson used this
principle to devise his cloud chamber, allowing the tracks of charged particles, such as fast-moving electrons, to be
photographed.
Atomic theory
By 1914, experiments by physicists Ernest Rutherford, Henry Moseley,
James Franck and Gustav Hertz had largely established the structure of
an atom as a dense nucleus of positive charge surrounded by
lower-mass electrons. In 1913, Danish physicist Niels Bohr postulated
that electrons resided in quantized energy states, with the energy
determined by the angular momentum of the electron's orbits about the
nucleus. The electrons could move between these states, or orbits, by
the emission or absorption of photons at specific frequencies. By
means of these quantized orbits, he accurately explained the spectral
lines of the hydrogen atom. However, Bohr's model failed to account
for the relative intensities of the spectral lines and it was unsuccessful
in explaining the spectra of more complex atoms. The Bohr model of the atom, showing states of
electron with energy quantized by the number n.
Chemical bonds between atoms were explained by Gilbert Newton An electron dropping to a lower orbit emits a
photon equal to the energy difference between the
Lewis, who in 1916 proposed that a covalent bond between two atoms
orbits.
is maintained by a pair of electrons shared between them. Later, in
1927, Walter Heitler and Fritz London gave the full explanation of the
electron-pair formation and chemical bonding in terms of quantum mechanics. In 1919, the American chemist Irving
Langmuir elaborated on the Lewis' static model of the atom and suggested that all electrons were distributed in
successive "concentric (nearly) spherical shells, all of equal thickness". The shells were, in turn, divided by him in a
number of cells each containing one pair of electrons. With this model Langmuir was able to qualitatively explain
the chemical properties of all elements in the periodic table, which were known to largely repeat themselves
according to the periodic law.
In 1924, Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli observed that the shell-like structure of the atom could be explained by a
set of four parameters that defined every quantum energy state, as long as each state was inhabited by no more than a
single electron. (This prohibition against more than one electron occupying the same quantum energy state became
known as the Pauli exclusion principle.) The physical mechanism to explain the fourth parameter, which had two
distinct possible values, was provided by the Dutch physicists Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck. In 1925,
Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck suggested that an electron, in addition to the angular momentum of its orbit, possesses an
intrinsic angular momentum and magnetic dipole moment. The intrinsic angular momentum became known as spin,
and explained the previously mysterious splitting of spectral lines observed with a high-resolution spectrograph; this
phenomenon is known as fine structure splitting.
Electron 28
Quantum mechanics
In his 1924 dissertation Recherches sur la théorie des quanta (Research on Quantum Theory), French physicist
Louis de Broglie hypothesized that all matter possesses a de Broglie wave similar to light. That is, under the
appropriate conditions, electrons and other matter would show properties of either particles or waves. The
corpuscular properties of a particle are demonstrated when it is shown to have a localized position in space along its
trajectory at any given moment. Wave-like nature is observed, for example, when a beam of light is passed through
parallel slits and creates interference patterns. In 1927, the interference effect was found in a beam of electrons by
English physicist George Paget Thomson with a thin metal film and by American physicists Clinton Davisson and
Lester Germer using a crystal of nickel.
De Broglie's prediction of a wave nature for electrons led Erwin
Schrödinger to postulate a wave equation for electrons moving under
the influence of the nucleus in the atom. In 1926, this equation, the
Schrödinger equation, successfully described how electron waves
propagated. Rather than yielding a solution that determined the
location of an electron over time, this wave equation also could be used
to predict the probability of finding an electron near a position,
especially a position near where the electron was bound in space, for
which the electron wave equations did not change in time. This
approach led to a second formulation of quantum mechanics (the first
being by Heisenberg in 1925), and solutions of Schrödinger's equation,
like Heisenberg's, provided derivations of the energy states of an
electron in a hydrogen atom that were equivalent to those that had been
derived first by Bohr in 1913, and that were known to reproduce the
hydrogen spectrum. Once spin and the interaction between multiple In quantum mechanics, the behavior of an
electron in an atom is described by an orbital,
electrons were considered, quantum mechanics later allowed the
which is a probability distribution rather than an
configuration of electrons in atoms with higher atomic numbers than orbit. In the figure, the shading indicates the
hydrogen to be successfully predicted. relative probability to "find" the electron, having
the energy corresponding to the given quantum
In 1928, building on Wolfgang Pauli's work, Paul Dirac produced a numbers, at that point.
model of the electron – the Dirac equation, consistent with relativity
theory, by applying relativistic and symmetry considerations to the hamiltonian formulation of the quantum
mechanics of the electro-magnetic field. In order to resolve some problems within his relativistic equation, in 1930
Dirac developed a model of the vacuum as an infinite sea of particles having negative energy, which was dubbed the
Dirac sea. This led him to predict the existence of a positron, the antimatter counterpart of the electron. This particle
was discovered in 1932 by Carl Anderson, who proposed calling standard electrons negatrons, and using electron as
a generic term to describe both the positively and negatively charged variants.
In 1947 Willis Lamb, working in collaboration with graduate student Robert Retherford, found that certain quantum
states of hydrogen atom, which should have the same energy, were shifted in relation to each other, the difference
being the Lamb shift. About the same time, Polykarp Kusch, working with Henry M. Foley, discovered the magnetic
moment of the electron is slightly larger than predicted by Dirac's theory. This small difference was later called
anomalous magnetic dipole moment of the electron. This difference was later explained by the theory of quantum
electrodynamics, developed by Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard Feynman in the late 1940s.
Electron 29
Particle accelerators
With the development of the particle accelerator during the first half of the twentieth century, physicists began to
delve deeper into the properties of subatomic particles. The first successful attempt to accelerate electrons using
electromagnetic induction was made in 1942 by Donald Kerst. His initial betatron reached energies of 2.3 MeV,
while subsequent betatrons achieved 300 MeV. In 1947, synchrotron radiation was discovered with a 70 MeV
electron synchrotron at General Electric. This radiation was caused by the acceleration of electrons, moving near the
speed of light, through a magnetic field.
With a beam energy of 1.5 GeV, the first high-energy particle collider was ADONE, which began operations in
1968. This device accelerated electrons and positrons in opposite directions, effectively doubling the energy of their
collision when compared to striking a static target with an electron. The Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) at
CERN, which was operational from 1989 to 2000, achieved collision energies of 209 GeV and made important
measurements for the Standard Model of particle physics.
Confinement of individual electrons

Individual electrons can now be easily confined in ultra small (L=20 nm, W=20 nm) CMOS transistors operated at
cryogenic temperature over a range of −269 °C (4 K) to about −258 °C (15 K). The electron wavefunction spreads in
a semiconductor lattice and negligibly interacts with the valence band electrons, so it can be treated in the single
particle formalism, by replacing its mass with the effective mass tensor.
Characteristics
Classification
In the Standard Model of particle physics,
electrons belong to the group of subatomic
particles called leptons, which are believed
to be fundamental or elementary particles.
Electrons have the lowest mass of any
charged lepton (or electrically charged
particle of any type) and belong to the
first-generation of fundamental particles.
The second and third generation contain
charged leptons, the muon and the tau,
which are identical to the electron in charge,
spin and interactions, but are more massive.
Leptons differ from the other basic
constituent of matter, the quarks, by their
lack of strong interaction. All members of Standard Model of elementary particles. The electron is at lower left.
the lepton group are fermions, because they
all have half-odd integer spin; the electron has spin 1⁄2.
Electron 30
Fundamental properties
The invariant mass of an electron is approximately 9.109×10−31 kilograms, or 5.489×10−4 atomic mass units. On the
basis of Einstein's principle of mass–energy equivalence, this mass corresponds to a rest energy of 0.511 MeV. The
ratio between the mass of a proton and that of an electron is about 1836. Astronomical measurements show that the
proton-to-electron mass ratio has held the same value for at least half the age of the universe, as is predicted by the
Standard Model.
Electrons have an electric charge of −1.602×10−19 coulomb,[] which is used as a standard unit of charge for
subatomic particles, and is also called the elementary charge. This elementary charge has a relative standard
uncertainty of 2.2×10−8.[] Within the limits of experimental accuracy, the electron charge is identical to the charge of
a proton, but with the opposite sign. As the symbol e is used for the elementary charge, the electron is commonly
symbolized by e−, where the minus sign indicates the negative charge. The positron is symbolized by e+ because it
has the same properties as the electron but with a positive rather than negative charge.
The electron has an intrinsic angular momentum or spin of 1⁄2. This property is usually stated by referring to the
electron as a spin-1⁄2 particle. For such particles the spin magnitude is √3⁄2 ħ.[11] while the result of the measurement
of a projection of the spin on any axis can only be ±ħ⁄2. In addition to spin, the electron has an intrinsic magnetic
moment along its spin axis. It is approximately equal to one Bohr magneton,[12] which is a physical constant equal to
9.27400915(23)×10−24 joules per tesla. The orientation of the spin with respect to the momentum of the electron
defines the property of elementary particles known as helicity.
The electron has no known substructure. Hence, it is defined or assumed to be a point particle with a point charge
and no spatial extent. Observation of a single electron in a Penning trap shows the upper limit of the particle's radius
is 10−22 meters. There is a physical constant called the "classical electron radius", with the much larger value of
2.8179×10−15 m. However, the terminology comes from a simplistic calculation that ignores the effects of quantum
mechanics; in reality, the so-called classical electron radius has little to do with the true fundamental structure of the
electron.[13]
There are elementary particles that spontaneously decay into less massive particles. An example is the muon, which
decays into an electron, a neutrino and an antineutrino, with a mean lifetime of 2.2×10−6 seconds. However, the
electron is thought to be stable on theoretical grounds: the electron is the least massive particle with non-zero electric
charge, so its decay would violate charge conservation. The experimental lower bound for the electron's mean
lifetime is 4.6×1026 years, at a 90% confidence level.
Quantum properties
As with all particles, electrons can act as waves. This is called the wave–particle duality and can be demonstrated
using the double-slit experiment. The wave-like nature of the electron allows it to pass through two parallel slits
simultaneously, rather than just one slit as would be the case for a classical particle. In quantum mechanics, the
wave-like property of one particle can be described mathematically as a complex-valued function, the wave function,
commonly denoted by the Greek letter psi (ψ). When the absolute value of this function is squared, it gives the
probability that a particle will be observed near a location—a probability density.
Electron 31
Electrons are identical particles because they cannot be distinguished

from each other by their intrinsic physical properties. In quantum
mechanics, this means that a pair of interacting electrons must be able
to swap positions without an observable change to the state of the
system. The wave function of fermions, including electrons, is
antisymmetric, meaning that it changes sign when two electrons are
swapped; that is, ψ(r1, r2) = −ψ(r2, r1), where the variables r1 and r2
correspond to the first and second electrons, respectively. Since the
absolute value is not changed by a sign swap, this corresponds to equal
Example of an antisymmetric wave function for a
probabilities. Bosons, such as the photon, have symmetric wave
quantum state of two identical fermions in a
functions instead. 1-dimensional box. If the particles swap position,
the wave function inverts its sign.
In the case of antisymmetry, solutions of the wave equation for
interacting electrons result in a zero probability that each pair will
occupy the same location or state. This is responsible for the Pauli exclusion principle, which precludes any two
electrons from occupying the same quantum state. This principle explains many of the properties of electrons. For
example, it causes groups of bound electrons to occupy different orbitals in an atom, rather than all overlapping each
other in the same orbit.
Virtual particles
Physicists believe that empty space may be continually creating pairs of virtual particles, such as a positron and
electron, which rapidly annihilate each other shortly thereafter. The combination of the energy variation needed to
create these particles, and the time during which they exist, fall under the threshold of detectability expressed by the
Heisenberg uncertainty relation, ΔE · Δt ≥ ħ. In effect, the energy needed to create these virtual particles, ΔE, can be
"borrowed" from the vacuum for a period of time, Δt, so that their product is no more than the reduced Planck
constant, ħ ≈ 6.6×10−16 eV·s. Thus, for a virtual electron, Δt is at most 1.3×10−21 s.
While an electron–positron virtual pair is in existence, the coulomb
force from the ambient electric field surrounding an electron causes a
created positron to be attracted to the original electron, while a created
electron experiences a repulsion. This causes what is called vacuum
polarization. In effect, the vacuum behaves like a medium having a
dielectric permittivity more than unity. Thus the effective charge of an
electron is actually smaller than its true value, and the charge decreases
with increasing distance from the electron. This polarization was
confirmed experimentally in 1997 using the Japanese TRISTAN
A schematic depiction of virtual
particle accelerator. Virtual particles cause a comparable shielding
electron–positron pairs appearing at random near
effect for the mass of the electron.[14] an electron (at lower left)
The interaction with virtual particles also explains the small (about
0.1%) deviation of the intrinsic magnetic moment of the electron from the Bohr magneton (the anomalous magnetic
moment). The extraordinarily precise agreement of this predicted difference with the experimentally determined
value is viewed as one of the great achievements of quantum electrodynamics.
In classical physics, the angular momentum and magnetic moment of an object depend upon its physical dimensions.
Hence, the concept of a dimensionless electron possessing these properties might seem inconsistent. The apparent
paradox can be explained by the formation of virtual photons in the electric field generated by the electron. These
photons cause the electron to shift about in a jittery fashion (known as zitterbewegung), which results in a net
circular motion with precession. This motion produces both the spin and the magnetic moment of the electron. In
Electron 32
atoms, this creation of virtual photons explains the Lamb shift observed in spectral lines.
Interaction
An electron generates an electric field that exerts an attractive force on a particle with a positive charge, such as the
proton, and a repulsive force on a particle with a negative charge. The strength of this force is determined by
Coulomb's inverse square law. When an electron is in motion, it generates a magnetic field.[15] The
Ampère-Maxwell law relates the magnetic field to the mass motion of electrons (the current) with respect to an
observer. It is this property of induction which supplies the magnetic field that drives an electric motor. The
electromagnetic field of an arbitrary moving charged particle is expressed by the Liénard–Wiechert potentials, which
are valid even when the particle's speed is close to that of light (relativistic).
When an electron is moving through a magnetic field, it is subject to
the Lorentz force that exerts an influence in a direction perpendicular
to the plane defined by the magnetic field and the electron velocity.
This centripetal force causes the electron to follow a helical trajectory
through the field at a radius called the gyroradius. The acceleration
from this curving motion induces the electron to radiate energy in the
form of synchrotron radiation.[16][17] The energy emission in turn
causes a recoil of the electron, known as the Abraham–Lorentz–Dirac
Force, which creates a friction that slows the electron. This force is
caused by a back-reaction of the electron's own field upon itself. A particle with charge q (at left) is moving with
velocity v through a magnetic field B that is
Photons mediate electromagnetic interactions between particles in
oriented toward the viewer. For an electron, q is
quantum electrodynamics. An isolated electron at a constant velocity negative so it follows a curved trajectory toward
cannot emit or absorb a real photon; doing so would violate the top.
conservation of energy and momentum. Instead, virtual photons can
transfer momentum between two charged particles. This exchange of virtual photons, for example, generates the
Coulomb force. Energy emission can occur when a moving electron is deflected by a charged particle, such as a
proton. The acceleration of the electron results in the emission of Bremsstrahlung radiation.
An inelastic collision between a photon (light) and a solitary (free)

electron is called Compton scattering. This collision results in a
transfer of momentum and energy between the particles, which
modifies the wavelength of the photon by an amount called the
Compton shift.[18] The maximum magnitude of this wavelength shift is
h/mec, which is known as the Compton wavelength. For an electron, it
has a value of 2.43×10−12 m. When the wavelength of the light is long
(for instance, the wavelength of the visible light is 0.4–0.7 μm) the
wavelength shift becomes negligible. Such interaction between the
light and free electrons is called Thomson scattering or Linear
Thomson scattering.
The relative strength of the electromagnetic interaction between two

charged particles, such as an electron and a proton, is given by the
Here, Bremsstrahlung is produced by an electron
fine-structure constant. This value is a dimensionless quantity formed
e deflected by the electric field of an atomic by the ratio of two energies: the electrostatic energy of attraction (or
nucleus. The energy change E2 − E1 determines repulsion) at a separation of one Compton wavelength, and the rest
the frequency f of the emitted photon.
energy of the charge. It is given by α ≈ 7.297353×10−3, which is
approximately equal to 1⁄137.
Electron 33
When electrons and positrons collide, they annihilate each other, giving rise to two or more gamma ray photons. If
the electron and positron have negligible momentum, a positronium atom can form before annihilation results in two
or three gamma ray photons totalling 1.022 MeV. On the other hand, high-energy photons may transform into an
electron and a positron by a process called pair production, but only in the presence of a nearby charged particle,
such as a nucleus.
In the theory of electroweak interaction, the left-handed component of electron's wavefunction forms a weak isospin
doublet with the electron neutrino. This means that during weak interactions, electron neutrinos behave like
electrons. Either member of this doublet can undergo a charged current interaction by emitting or absorbing a W and
be converted into the other member. Charge is conserved during this reaction because the W boson also carries a
charge, canceling out any net change during the transmutation. Charged current interactions are responsible for the
phenomenon of beta decay in a radioactive atom. Both the electron and electron neutrino can undergo a neutral
current interaction via a Z0 exchange, and this is responsible for neutrino-electron elastic scattering.
Atoms and molecules

An electron can be bound to the nucleus of an
atom by the attractive Coulomb force. A system
of one or more electrons bound to a nucleus is
called an atom. If the number of electrons is
different from the nucleus' electrical charge,
such an atom is called an ion. The wave-like
behavior of a bound electron is described by a
function called an atomic orbital. Each orbital
has its own set of quantum numbers such as
energy, angular momentum and projection of
angular momentum, and only a discrete set of
these orbitals exist around the nucleus.
According to the Pauli exclusion principle each
orbital can be occupied by up to two electrons,
which must differ in their spin quantum number.
Electrons can transfer between different orbitals Probability densities for the first few hydrogen atom orbitals, seen in
by the emission or absorption of photons with an cross-section. The energy level of a bound electron determines the orbital it
energy that matches the difference in potential. occupies, and the color reflects the probability to find the electron at a given
position.
Other methods of orbital transfer include
collisions with particles, such as electrons, and
the Auger effect. In order to escape the atom, the energy of the electron must be increased above its binding energy
to the atom. This occurs, for example, with the photoelectric effect, where an incident photon exceeding the atom's
ionization energy is absorbed by the electron.
The orbital angular momentum of electrons is quantized. Because the electron is charged, it produces an orbital
magnetic moment that is proportional to the angular momentum. The net magnetic moment of an atom is equal to the
vector sum of orbital and spin magnetic moments of all electrons and the nucleus. The magnetic moment of the
nucleus is negligible compared with that of the electrons. The magnetic moments of the electrons that occupy the
same orbital (so called, paired electrons) cancel each other out.
The chemical bond between atoms occurs as a result of electromagnetic interactions, as described by the laws of
quantum mechanics. The strongest bonds are formed by the sharing or transfer of electrons between atoms, allowing
the formation of molecules. Within a molecule, electrons move under the influence of several nuclei, and occupy
Electron 34
molecular orbitals; much as they can occupy atomic orbitals in isolated atoms. A fundamental factor in these
molecular structures is the existence of electron pairs. These are electrons with opposed spins, allowing them to
occupy the same molecular orbital without violating the Pauli exclusion principle (much like in atoms). Different
molecular orbitals have different spatial distribution of the electron density. For instance, in bonded pairs (i.e. in the
pairs that actually bind atoms together) electrons can be found with the maximal probability in a relatively small
volume between the nuclei. On the contrary, in non-bonded pairs electrons are distributed in a large volume around
nuclei.
Conductivity
If a body has more or fewer electrons than are required to balance the
positive charge of the nuclei, then that object has a net electric charge.
When there is an excess of electrons, the object is said to be negatively
charged. When there are fewer electrons than the number of protons in
nuclei, the object is said to be positively charged. When the number of
electrons and the number of protons are equal, their charges cancel
each other and the object is said to be electrically neutral. A
macroscopic body can develop an electric charge through rubbing, by
the triboelectric effect.
Independent electrons moving in vacuum are termed free electrons.

Electrons in metals also behave as if they were free. In reality the
particles that are commonly termed electrons in metals and other solids
A lightning discharge consists primarily of a flow
are quasi-electrons—quasiparticles, which have the same electrical of electrons. The electric potential needed for
charge, spin and magnetic moment as real electrons but may have a lightning may be generated by a triboelectric
different mass. When free electrons—both in vacuum and effect.
metals—move, they produce a net flow of charge called an electric

current, which generates a magnetic field. Likewise a current can be created by a changing magnetic field. These
interactions are described mathematically by Maxwell's equations.
At a given temperature, each material has an electrical conductivity that determines the value of electric current
when an electric potential is applied. Examples of good conductors include metals such as copper and gold, whereas
glass and Teflon are poor conductors. In any dielectric material, the electrons remain bound to their respective atoms
and the material behaves as an insulator. Most semiconductors have a variable level of conductivity that lies between
the extremes of conduction and insulation. On the other hand, metals have an electronic band structure containing
partially filled electronic bands. The presence of such bands allows electrons in metals to behave as if they were free
or delocalized electrons. These electrons are not associated with specific atoms, so when an electric field is applied,
they are free to move like a gas (called Fermi gas) through the material much like free electrons.
Because of collisions between electrons and atoms, the drift velocity of electrons in a conductor is on the order of
millimeters per second. However, the speed at which a change of current at one point in the material causes changes
in currents in other parts of the material, the velocity of propagation, is typically about 75% of light speed. This
occurs because electrical signals propagate as a wave, with the velocity dependent on the dielectric constant of the
material.
Metals make relatively good conductors of heat, primarily because the delocalized electrons are free to transport
thermal energy between atoms. However, unlike electrical conductivity, the thermal conductivity of a metal is nearly
independent of temperature. This is expressed mathematically by the Wiedemann–Franz law, which states that the
ratio of thermal conductivity to the electrical conductivity is proportional to the temperature. The thermal disorder in
the metallic lattice increases the electrical resistivity of the material, producing a temperature dependence for
electrical current.
Electron 35
When cooled below a point called the critical temperature, materials can undergo a phase transition in which they
lose all resistivity to electrical current, in a process known as superconductivity. In BCS theory, this behavior is
modeled by pairs of electrons entering a quantum state known as a Bose–Einstein condensate. These Cooper pairs
have their motion coupled to nearby matter via lattice vibrations called phonons, thereby avoiding the collisions with
atoms that normally create electrical resistance. (Cooper pairs have a radius of roughly 100 nm, so they can overlap
each other.) However, the mechanism by which higher temperature superconductors operate remains uncertain.
Electrons inside conducting solids, which are quasi-particles themselves, when tightly confined at temperatures close
to absolute zero, behave as though they had split into three other quasiparticles: spinons, Orbitons and holons. The
former carries spin and magnetic moment, the next carries its orbital location while the latter electrical charge.
Motion and energy

According to Einstein's theory of special relativity, as an electron's speed approaches the speed of light, from an
observer's point of view its relativistic mass increases, thereby making it more and more difficult to accelerate it
from within the observer's frame of reference. The speed of an electron can approach, but never reach, the speed of
light in a vacuum, c. However, when relativistic electrons—that is, electrons moving at a speed close to c—are
injected into a dielectric medium such as water, where the local speed of light is significantly less than c, the
electrons temporarily travel faster than light in the medium. As they interact with the medium, they generate a faint
light called Cherenkov radiation.
The effects of special relativity are based on a quantity known as the
Lorentz factor, defined as where v is the speed of the
particle. The kinetic energy Ke of an electron moving with velocity v is:
where me is the mass of electron. For example, the Stanford linear

accelerator can accelerate an electron to roughly 51 GeV. Since an
electron behaves as a wave, at a given velocity it has a characteristic de
Broglie wavelength. This is given by λe = h/p where h is the Planck
constant and p is the momentum. For the 51 GeV electron above, the
wavelength is about 2.4×10−17 m, small enough to explore structures
well below the size of an atomic nucleus.
Lorentz factor as a function of velocity. It starts at
value 1 and goes to infinity as v approaches c.
Formation
Electron 36
The Big Bang theory is the most widely accepted scientific theory to
explain the early stages in the evolution of the Universe. For the first
millisecond of the Big Bang, the temperatures were over
10 billion Kelvin and photons had mean energies over a million
electronvolts. These photons were sufficiently energetic that they could
react with each other to form pairs of electrons and positrons.
Likewise, positron-electron pairs annihilated each other and emitted
energetic photons:
γ + γ ↔ e+ + e− Pair production caused by the collision of a

An equilibrium between electrons, positrons and photons was photon with an atomic nucleus
maintained during this phase of the evolution of the Universe. After 15

seconds had passed, however, the temperature of the universe dropped below the threshold where electron-positron
formation could occur. Most of the surviving electrons and positrons annihilated each other, releasing gamma
radiation that briefly reheated the universe.
For reasons that remain uncertain, during the process of leptogenesis there was an excess in the number of electrons
over positrons. Hence, about one electron in every billion survived the annihilation process. This excess matched the
excess of protons over antiprotons, in a condition known as baryon asymmetry, resulting in a net charge of zero for
the universe. The surviving protons and neutrons began to participate in reactions with each other—in the process
known as nucleosynthesis, forming isotopes of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of lithium. This process
peaked after about five minutes. Any leftover neutrons underwent negative beta decay with a half-life of about a
thousand seconds, releasing a proton and electron in the process,
n → p + e− + ν
e
For about the next 300,000–400,000 years, the excess electrons remained too energetic to bind with atomic nuclei.
What followed is a period known as recombination, when neutral atoms were formed and the expanding universe
became transparent to radiation.
Roughly one million years after the big bang, the first generation of stars began to form. Within a star, stellar
nucleosynthesis results in the production of positrons from the fusion of atomic nuclei. These antimatter particles
immediately annihilate with electrons, releasing gamma rays. The net result is a steady reduction in the number of
electrons, and a matching increase in the number of neutrons. However, the process of stellar evolution can result in
the synthesis of radioactive isotopes. Selected isotopes can subsequently undergo negative beta decay, emitting an
electron and antineutrino from the nucleus. An example is the cobalt-60 (60Co) isotope, which decays to form
nickel-60 (60Ni).
Electron 37
At the end of its lifetime, a star with more than

about 20 solar masses can undergo gravitational
collapse to form a black hole. According to
classical physics, these massive stellar objects
exert a gravitational attraction that is strong
enough to prevent anything, even
electromagnetic radiation, from escaping past the
Schwarzschild radius. However, quantum
mechanical effects are believed to potentially
allow the emission of Hawking radiation at this
distance. Electrons (and positrons) are thought to
be created at the event horizon of these stellar
remnants.
When pairs of virtual particles (such as an

An extended air shower generated by an energetic cosmic ray striking the
Earth's atmosphere electron and positron) are created in the vicinity
of the event horizon, the random spatial
distribution of these particles may permit one of them to appear on the exterior; this process is called quantum
tunnelling. The gravitational potential of the black hole can then supply the energy that transforms this virtual
particle into a real particle, allowing it to radiate away into space. In exchange, the other member of the pair is given
negative energy, which results in a net loss of mass-energy by the black hole. The rate of Hawking radiation
increases with decreasing mass, eventually causing the black hole to evaporate away until, finally, it explodes.
Cosmic rays are particles traveling through space with high energies. Energy events as high as 3.0×1020 eV have
been recorded. When these particles collide with nucleons in the Earth's atmosphere, a shower of particles is
generated, including pions. More than half of the cosmic radiation observed from the Earth's surface consists of
muons. The particle called a muon is a lepton which is produced in the upper atmosphere by the decay of a pion.
π− → μ− + ν
μ
A muon, in turn, can decay to form an electron or positron.

μ− → e− + ν
e+ν
μ
Observation
Remote observation of electrons requires detection of their radiated
energy. For example, in high-energy environments such as the corona
of a star, free electrons form a plasma that radiates energy due to
Bremsstrahlung radiation. Electron gas can undergo plasma oscillation,
which is waves caused by synchronized variations in electron density,
and these produce energy emissions that can be detected by using radio
telescopes.
The frequency of a photon is proportional to its energy. As a bound

Aurorae are mostly caused by energetic electrons
electron transitions between different energy levels of an atom, it will precipitating into the atmosphere.
Electron 38
absorb or emit photons at characteristic frequencies. For instance, when atoms are irradiated by a source with a broad
spectrum, distinct absorption lines will appear in the spectrum of transmitted radiation. Each element or molecule
displays a characteristic set of spectral lines, such as the hydrogen spectral series. Spectroscopic measurements of the
strength and width of these lines allow the composition and physical properties of a substance to be determined.
In laboratory conditions, the interactions of individual electrons can be observed by means of particle detectors,
which allow measurement of specific properties such as energy, spin and charge. The development of the Paul trap
and Penning trap allows charged particles to be contained within a small region for long durations. This enables
precise measurements of the particle properties. For example, in one instance a Penning trap was used to contain a
single electron for a period of 10 months. The magnetic moment of the electron was measured to a precision of
eleven digits, which, in 1980, was a greater accuracy than for any other physical constant.
The first video images of an electron's energy distribution were captured by a team at Lund University in Sweden,
February 2008. The scientists used extremely short flashes of light, called attosecond pulses, which allowed an
electron's motion to be observed for the first time.
The distribution of the electrons in solid materials can be visualized by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
(ARPES). This technique employs the photoelectric effect to measure the reciprocal space—a mathematical
representation of periodic structures that is used to infer the original structure. ARPES can be used to determine the
direction, speed and scattering of electrons within the material.
Plasma applications
Particle beams
Electron beams are used in welding. They allow energy densities up to
107 W·cm−2 across a narrow focus diameter of 0.1–1.3 mm and usually
require no filler material. This welding technique must be performed in
a vacuum to prevent the electrons from interacting with the gas before
reaching their target, and it can be used to join conductive materials
that would otherwise be considered unsuitable for welding.
Electron-beam lithography (EBL) is a method of etching

semiconductors at resolutions smaller than a micron. This technique is
limited by high costs, slow performance, the need to operate the beam
in the vacuum and the tendency of the electrons to scatter in solids. During a NASA wind tunnel test, a model of the
Space Shuttle is targeted by a beam of electrons,
The last problem limits the resolution to about 10 nm. For this reason,
simulating the effect of ionizing gases during
EBL is primarily used for the production of small numbers of re-entry.
specialized integrated circuits.
Electron beam processing is used to irradiate materials in order to change their physical properties or sterilize
medical and food products. Electron beams fluidise or quasi-melt glasses without significant increase of temperature
on intensive irradiation: e.g. intensive electron radiation causes a many orders of magnitude decrease of viscosity
and stepwise decrease of its activation energy.[19]
Linear particle accelerators generate electron beams for treatment of superficial tumors in radiation therapy. Electron
therapy can treat such skin lesions as basal-cell carcinomas because an electron beam only penetrates to a limited
depth before being absorbed, typically up to 5 cm for electron energies in the range 5–20 MeV. An electron beam
can be used to supplement the treatment of areas that have been irradiated by X-rays.
Particle accelerators use electric fields to propel electrons and their antiparticles to high energies. These particles
emit synchrotron radiation as they pass through magnetic fields. The dependency of the intensity of this radiation
upon spin polarizes the electron beam—a process known as the Sokolov–Ternov effect.[20] Polarized electron beams
Electron 39
can be useful for various experiments. Synchrotron radiation can also cool the electron beams to reduce the
momentum spread of the particles. Electron and positron beams are collided upon the particles' accelerating to the
required energies; particle detectors observe the resulting energy emissions, which particle physics studies .
Imaging
Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) is a method of bombarding a crystalline material with a collimated beam of
electrons and then observing the resulting diffraction patterns to determine the structure of the material. The required
energy of the electrons is typically in the range 20–200 eV. The reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED)
technique uses the reflection of a beam of electrons fired at various low angles to characterize the surface of
crystalline materials. The beam energy is typically in the range 8–20 keV and the angle of incidence is 1–4°.
The electron microscope directs a focused beam of electrons at a specimen. Some electrons change their properties,
such as movement direction, angle, and relative phase and energy as the beam interacts with the material.
Microscopists can record these changes in the electron beam to produce atomically resolved images of the material.
In blue light, conventional optical microscopes have a diffraction-limited resolution of about 200 nm. By
comparison, electron microscopes are limited by the de Broglie wavelength of the electron. This wavelength, for
example, is equal to 0.0037 nm for electrons accelerated across a 100,000-volt potential. The Transmission Electron
Aberration-Corrected Microscope is capable of sub-0.05 nm resolution, which is more than enough to resolve
individual atoms. This capability makes the electron microscope a useful laboratory instrument for high resolution
imaging. However, electron microscopes are expensive instruments that are costly to maintain.
Two main types of electron microscopes exist: transmission and scanning. Transmission electron microscopes
function like overhead projectors, with a beam of electrons passing through a slice of material then being projected
by lenses on a photographic slide or a charge-coupled device. Scanning electron microscopes rasteri a finely focused
electron beam, as in a TV set, across the studied sample to produce the image. Magnifications range from 100× to
1,000,000× or higher for both microscope types. The scanning tunneling microscope uses quantum tunneling of
electrons from a sharp metal tip into the studied material and can produce atomically resolved images of its surface.
Other applications
In the free-electron laser (FEL), a relativistic electron beam passes through a pair of undulators that contain arrays of
dipole magnets whose fields point in alternating directions. The electrons emit synchrotron radiation that coherently
interacts with the same electrons to strongly amplify the radiation field at the resonance frequency. FEL can emit a
coherent high-brilliance electromagnetic radiation with a wide range of frequencies, from microwaves to soft X-rays.
These devices may find manufacturing, communication and various medical applications, such as soft tissue surgery.
Electrons are important in cathode ray tubes, which have been extensively used as display devices in laboratory
instruments, computer monitors and television sets. In a photomultiplier tube, every photon striking the photocathode
initiates an avalanche of electrons that produces a detectable current pulse. Vacuum tubes use the flow of electrons to
manipulate electrical signals, and they played a critical role in the development of electronics technology. However,
they have been largely supplanted by solid-state devices such as the transistor.
Electron 40
Notes
[1] The fractional version's denominator is the inverse of the decimal value (along with its relative standard uncertainty of ).
[2] The electron's charge is the negative of elementary charge, which has a positive value for the proton.
[3] Dahl (1997:122–185).
[4] "electron, n.2". OED Online. March 2013. Oxford University Press. Accessed 12 April 2013 (http:/ / www. oed. com/ view/ Entry/
60302?rskey=owKYbt& result=2)
[5] Dahl (1997:55–58).
[6] Dahl (1997:64–78).
[7] Dahl (1997:99).
[8] Frank Wilczek: " Happy Birthday, Electron (http:/ / www. scientificamerican. com/ article. cfm?id=happy-birthday-electron)" Scientific
American, June 2012.
[9] Buchwald and Warwick (2001:90–91).
[10] Original publication in Russian:
[11] This magnitude is obtained from the spin quantum number as
UNIQ-math-0-19b700d988ba3161-QINU
for quantum number s = .
See:
[12] Bohr magneton:
[13] The classical electron radius is derived as follows. Assume that the electron's charge is spread uniformly throughout a spherical volume.
Since one part of the sphere would repel the other parts, the sphere contains electrostatic potential energy. This energy is assumed to equal the
electron's rest energy, defined by special relativity (E = mc2).
From electrostatics theory, the potential energy of a sphere with radius r and charge e is given by:
where ε0 is the vacuum permittivity. For an electron with rest mass m0, the rest energy is equal to:
where c is the speed of light in a vacuum. Setting them equal and solving for r gives the classical electron radius.
See:
[14] —lists a 9% mass difference for an electron that is the size of the Planck distance.
[15] Munowitz (2005:140).
[16] Munowitz (2005:160).
[17] Radiation from non-relativistic electrons is sometimes termed cyclotron radiation.
[18] The change in wavelength, Δλ, depends on the angle of the recoil, θ, as follows,
where c is the speed of light in a vacuum and me is the electron mass. See Zombeck (2007: 393, 396).
[19] Mobus G. et al. (2010). Journal of Nuclear Materials, v. 396, 264–271, doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2009.11.020
[20] The polarization of an electron beam means that the spins of all electrons point into one direction. In other words, the projections of the
spins of all electrons onto their momentum vector have the same sign.
References
External links
• "The Discovery of the Electron" (http://www.aip.org/history/electron/). American Institute of Physics, Center
for History of Physics.
• "Particle Data Group" (http://pdg.lbl.gov/). University of California.
• Bock, R.K.; Vasilescu, A. (1998). The Particle Detector BriefBook (http://physics.web.cern.ch/Physics/
ParticleDetector/BriefBook/) (14th ed.). Springer. ISBN 3-540-64120-3.
• Copeland, Ed. "Spherical Electron" (http://www.sixtysymbols.com/videos/electron_sphere.htm). Sixty
Symbols. Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham.
Nuclear physics 41
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics
Nucleus · Nucleons (p, n) · Nuclear force · Nuclear reaction
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the constituents and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most
commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but
the research has provided application in many fields, including those in nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance
imaging, ion implantation in materials engineering, and radiocarbon dating in geology and archaeology.
The field of particle physics evolved out of nuclear physics and is typically taught in close association with nuclear
physics.
History
Modern
physics
Schrödinger equation
History of modern physics
The history of nuclear physics as a discipline distinct from atomic physics starts with the discovery of radioactivity
by Henri Becquerel in 1896, while investigating phosphorescence in uranium salts. The discovery of the electron by
J. J. Thomson a year later was an indication that the atom had internal structure. At the turn of the 20th century the
accepted model of the atom was J. J. Thomson's plum pudding model in which the atom was a large positively
charged ball with small negatively charged electrons embedded inside of it. By the turn of the century physicists had
also discovered three types of radiation emanating from atoms, which they named alpha, beta, and gamma radiation.
Experiments in 1911 by Otto Hahn, and by James Chadwick in 1914 discovered that the beta decay spectrum was
continuous rather than discrete. That is, electrons were ejected from the atom with a range of energies, rather than the
discrete amounts of energies that were observed in gamma and alpha decays. This was a problem for nuclear physics
at the time, because it indicated that energy was not conserved in these decays.
In 1905, Albert Einstein formulated the idea of mass–energy equivalence. While the work on radioactivity by
Becquerel and Marie Curie predates this, an explanation of the source of the energy of radioactivity would have to
wait for the discovery that the nucleus itself was composed of smaller constituents, the nucleons.
Nuclear physics 42
Rutherford's team discovers the nucleus

In 1907 Ernest Rutherford published "Radiation of the α
Particle from Radium in passing through Matter."[1] Hans
Geiger expanded on this work in a communication to the
Royal Society[2] with experiments he and Rutherford had
done, passing α particles through air, aluminum foil and
gold leaf. More work was published in 1909 by Geiger and
Marsden[3] and further greatly expanded work was
published in 1910 by Geiger,[4] In 1911-2 Rutherford went
before the Royal Society to explain the experiments and
propound the new theory of the atomic nucleus as we now
understand it.
The key experiment behind this announcement happened in

1910 at the University of Manchester, as Ernest
Rutherford's team performed a remarkable experiment in
which Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden under his
supervision fired alpha particles (helium nuclei) at a thin
film of gold foil. The plum pudding model predicted that
the alpha particles should come out of the foil with their Ernest Rutherford is often considered to be the "Father of
trajectories being at most slightly bent. Rutherford had the Nuclear Physics"
idea to instruct his team to look for something that shocked
him to actually observe: a few particles were scattered through large angles, even completely backwards, in some
cases. He likened it to firing a bullet at tissue paper and having it bounce off. The discovery, beginning with
Rutherford's analysis of the data in 1911, eventually led to the Rutherford model of the atom, in which the atom has a
very small, very dense nucleus containing most of its mass, and consisting of heavy positively charged particles with
embedded electrons in order to balance out the charge (since the neutron was unknown). As an example, in this
model (which is not the modern one) nitrogen-14 consisted of a nucleus with 14 protons and 7 electrons (21 total
particles), and the nucleus was surrounded by 7 more orbiting electrons.
The Rutherford model worked quite well until studies of nuclear spin were carried out by Franco Rasetti at the
California Institute of Technology in 1929. By 1925 it was known that protons and electrons had a spin of 1/2, and in
the Rutherford model of nitrogen-14, 20 of the total 21 nuclear particles should have paired up to cancel each other's
spin, and the final odd particle should have left the nucleus with a net spin of 1/2. Rasetti discovered, however, that
nitrogen-14 had a spin of 1.
James Chadwick discovers the neutron

In 1932 Chadwick realized that radiation that had been observed by Walther Bothe, Herbert Becker, Irène and
Frédéric Joliot-Curie was actually due to a neutral particle of about the same mass as the proton, that he called the
neutron (following a suggestion about the need for such a particle, by Rutherford). In the same year Dmitri Ivanenko
suggested that neutrons were in fact spin 1/2 particles and that the nucleus contained neutrons to explain the mass not
due to protons, and that there were no electrons in the nucleus—only protons and neutrons. The neutron spin
immediately solved the problem of the spin of nitrogen-14, as the one unpaired proton and one unpaired neutron in
this model, each contribute a spin of 1/2 in the same direction, for a final total spin of 1.
With the discovery of the neutron, scientists at last could calculate what fraction of binding energy each nucleus had,
from comparing the nuclear mass with that of the protons and neutrons which composed it. Differences between
nuclear masses were calculated in this way and—when nuclear reactions were measured—were found to agree with
Nuclear physics 43
Einstein's calculation of the equivalence of mass and energy to high accuracy (within 1 percent as of in 1934).
Proca's equations of the massive vector boson field

Alexandru Proca was the first to develop and report the massive vector boson field equations and a theory of the
mesonic field of nuclear forces. Proca's equations were known to Wolfgang Pauli[5] who mentioned the equations in
his Nobel address, and they were also known to Yukawa, Wentzel, Taketani, Sakata, Kemmer, Heitler, and Fröhlich
who appreciated the content of Proca's equations for developing a theory of the atomic nuclei in Nuclear
Physics.[6][7][8][9]
Yukawa's meson postulated to bind nuclei

In 1935 Hideki Yukawa proposed the first significant theory of the strong force to explain how the nucleus holds
together. In the Yukawa interaction a virtual particle, later called a meson, mediated a force between all nucleons,
including protons and neutrons. This force explained why nuclei did not disintegrate under the influence of proton
repulsion, and it also gave an explanation of why the attractive strong force had a more limited range than the
electromagnetic repulsion between protons. Later, the discovery of the pi meson showed it to have the properties of
Yukawa's particle.
With Yukawa's papers, the modern model of the atom was complete. The center of the atom contains a tight ball of
neutrons and protons, which is held together by the strong nuclear force, unless it is too large. Unstable nuclei may
undergo alpha decay, in which they emit an energetic helium nucleus, or beta decay, in which they eject an electron
(or positron). After one of these decays the resultant nucleus may be left in an excited state, and in this case it decays
to its ground state by emitting high energy photons (gamma decay).
The study of the strong and weak nuclear forces (the latter explained by Enrico Fermi via Fermi's interaction in
1934) led physicists to collide nuclei and electrons at ever higher energies. This research became the science of
particle physics, the crown jewel of which is the standard model of particle physics which describes the strong,
weak, and electromagnetic forces.
Modern nuclear physics

A heavy nucleus can contain hundreds of nucleons which means that with some approximation it can be treated as a
classical system, rather than a quantum-mechanical one. In the resulting liquid-drop model, the nucleus has an
energy which arises partly from surface tension and partly from electrical repulsion of the protons. The liquid-drop
model is able to reproduce many features of nuclei, including the general trend of binding energy with respect to
mass number, as well as the phenomenon of nuclear fission.
Superimposed on this classical picture, however, are quantum-mechanical effects, which can be described using the
nuclear shell model, developed in large part by Maria Goeppert-Mayer. Nuclei with certain numbers of neutrons and
protons (the magic numbers 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, 126, ...) are particularly stable, because their shells are filled.
Other more complicated models for the nucleus have also been proposed, such as the interacting boson model, in
which pairs of neutrons and protons interact as bosons, analogously to Cooper pairs of electrons.
Much of current research in nuclear physics relates to the study of nuclei under extreme conditions such as high spin
and excitation energy. Nuclei may also have extreme shapes (similar to that of Rugby balls) or extreme
neutron-to-proton ratios. Experimenters can create such nuclei using artificially induced fusion or nucleon transfer
reactions, employing ion beams from an accelerator. Beams with even higher energies can be used to create nuclei at
very high temperatures, and there are signs that these experiments have produced a phase transition from normal
nuclear matter to a new state, the quark-gluon plasma, in which the quarks mingle with one another, rather than
being segregated in triplets as they are in neutrons and protons.
Nuclear physics 44
Nuclear decay
Eighty elements have at least one stable isotope never observed to decay, amounting to a total of about 254 stable
isotopes. However, thousands of isotopes have been characterized that are unstable. These radioisotopes decay over
time scales ranging from fractions of a second to weeks, years, billions of years, or even trillions of years.
The stability of a nucleus is highest when it falls into a certain range or balance of composition of neutrons and
protons; too few or too many neutrons may cause it to decay. For example, in beta decay a nitrogen-16 atom (7
protons, 9 neutrons) is converted to an oxygen-16 atom (8 protons, 8 neutrons) within a few seconds of being
created. In this decay a neutron in the nitrogen nucleus is converted into a proton and an electron and an antineutrino
by the weak interaction. The element is transmuted to another element in by acquiring the created proton.
In alpha decay the radioactive element decays by emitting a helium nucleus (2 protons and 2 neutrons), giving
another element, plus helium-4. In many cases this process continues through several steps of this kind, including
other types of decays, until a stable element is formed.
In gamma decay, a nucleus decays from an excited state into a lower energy state, by emitting a gamma ray. The
element is not changed to another element in the process (no nuclear transmutation is involved).
Other more exotic decays are possible (see the main article). For example, in internal conversion decay, the energy
from an excited nucleus may be used to eject one of the inner orbital electrons from the atom, in a process which
produces high speed electrons, but is not beta decay, and (unlike beta decay) does not transmute one element to
another.
Nuclear fusion
In nuclear fusion, two low mass nuclei come into very close contact with each other, so that the strong force fuses
them. It requires a large amount of energy to overcome the repulsion between the nuclei for the strong or nuclear
forces to produce this effect, therefore nuclear fusion can only take place at very high temperatures or high pressures.
Once the process succeeds, a very large amount of energy is released and the combined nucleus assumes a lower
energy level. The binding energy per nucleon increases with mass number up until nickel-62. Stars like the Sun are
powered by the fusion of four protons into a helium nucleus, two positrons, and two neutrinos. The uncontrolled
fusion of hydrogen into helium is known as thermonuclear runaway. A frontier in current research at various
institutions, for example the Joint European Torus (JET) and ITER, is the development of an economically viable
method of using energy from a controlled fusion reaction. Natural nuclear fusion is the origin of the light and energy
produced by the core of all stars including our own sun.
Nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is the reverse process of fusion. For nuclei heavier than nickel-62 the binding energy per nucleon
decreases with the mass number. It is therefore possible for energy to be released if a heavy nucleus breaks apart into
two lighter ones.
The process of alpha decay is in essence a special type of spontaneous nuclear fission. This process produces a
highly asymmetrical fission because the four particles which make up the alpha particle are especially tightly bound
to each other, making production of this nucleus in fission particularly likely.
For certain of the heaviest nuclei which produce neutrons on fission, and which also easily absorb neutrons to initiate
fission, a self-igniting type of neutron-initiated fission can be obtained, in a so-called chain reaction. Chain reactions
were known in chemistry before physics, and in fact many familiar processes like fires and chemical explosions are
chemical chain reactions. The fission or "nuclear" chain-reaction, using fission-produced neutrons, is the source of
energy for nuclear power plants and fission type nuclear bombs, such as those detonated by the United States in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II. Heavy nuclei such as uranium and thorium may also
undergo spontaneous fission, but they are much more likely to undergo decay by alpha decay.
Nuclear physics 45
For a neutron-initiated chain-reaction to occur, there must be a critical mass of the element present in a certain space
under certain conditions. The conditions for the smallest critical mass require the conservation of the emitted
neutrons and also their slowing or moderation so there is a greater cross-section or probability of them initiating
another fission. In two regions of Oklo, Gabon, Africa, natural nuclear fission reactors were active over 1.5 billion
years ago.[citation needed] Measurements of natural neutrino emission have demonstrated that around half of the heat
emanating from the Earth's core results from radioactive decay. However, it is not known if any of this results from
fission chain-reactions.[citation needed]
Production of "heavy" elements (atomic number greater than five)

According to the theory, as the Universe cooled after the big bang it eventually became possible for common
subatomic particles as we know them (neutrons, protons and electrons) to exist. The most common particles created
in the big bang which are still easily observable to us today were protons and electrons (in equal numbers). The
protons would eventually form hydrogen atoms. Almost all the neutrons created in the Big Bang were absorbed into
helium-4 in the first three minutes after the Big Bang, and this helium accounts for most of the helium in the
universe today (see Big Bang nucleosynthesis).
Some fraction of elements beyond helium were created in the Big Bang, as the protons and neutrons collided with
each other (lithium, beryllium, and perhaps some boron), but all of the "heavier elements" (carbon, element number
6, and elements of greater atomic number) that we see today, were created inside of stars during a series of fusion
stages, such as the proton-proton chain, the CNO cycle and the triple-alpha process. Progressively heavier elements
are created during the evolution of a star.
Since the binding energy per nucleon peaks around iron, energy is only released in fusion processes occurring below
this point. Since the creation of heavier nuclei by fusion costs energy, nature resorts to the process of neutron
capture. Neutrons(due to their lack of charge) are readily absorbed by a nucleus. The heavy elements are created by
either a slow neutron capture process (the so-called s process) or by the rapid, or r process. The s process occurs in
thermally pulsing stars (called AGB, or asymptotic giant branch stars) and takes hundreds to thousands of years to
reach the heaviest elements of lead and bismuth. The r process is thought to occur in supernova explosions because
the conditions of high temperature, high neutron flux and ejected matter are present. These stellar conditions make
the successive neutron captures very fast, involving very neutron-rich species which then beta-decay to heavier
elements, especially at the so-called waiting points that correspond to more stable nuclides with closed neutron shells
(magic numbers).
References
[1] Philosophical Magazine (12, p 134-46)
[2] Proc. Roy. Soc. July 17, 1908
[3] Proc. Roy. Soc. A82 p 495-500
[4] Proc. Roy. Soc. Feb. 1, 1910
[5] W. Pauli, Nobel lecture, December 13, 1946.
[6] G. A. Proca, Alexandre Proca.Oeuvre Scientifique Publiée, S.I.A.G., Rome, 1988.
[7] C. Vuille, J. Ipser, J. Gallagher, “Einstein-Proca model, micro black holes, and naked singularities”, General Relativity and Gravitation, 34
(2002), 689.
[8] R. Scipioni, “Isomorphism between non-Riemannian gravity and Einstein-Proca-Weyl theories extended to a class of scalar gravity theories”,
Class. Quantum Gravity., 16 (1999), 2471.
[9] R. W. Tucker and C. Wang, C., “An Einstein-Proca-fluid model for dark matter gravitational interactions”, Nucl. Phys. B - Proc. suppl., 57
(1997) 259.
Nuclear physics 46
Bibliography
• Nuclear Physics by Irving Kaplan 2nd edition, 1962 Addison-Wesley
• General Chemistry by Linus Pauling 1970 Dover Pub. ISBN 0-486-65622-5
• Introductory Nuclear Physics by Kenneth S. Krane Pub. Wiley
• N.D. Cook (2010). Models of the Atomic Nucleus (http://www.springer.com/physics/particle+and+nuclear+
physics/book/978-3-642-14736-4) (2nd ed.). Springer. pp. xvi & 324. ISBN 978-3-642-14736-4.
• Ahmad, D.Sc., Ishfaq; American Institute of Physics (1996). Physics of particles and nuclei. 1-3 27 (3 ed.).
University of California: American Institute of Physics Press. p. 209.
External links
• American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics (http://dnp.aps.org)
• American Nuclear Society (http://www.ans.org)
• Boiling Water Reactor Plant, BWR Simulator Program (http://www.acme-nuclear.com)
• Annotated bibliography on nuclear physics from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues (http://alsos.wlu.
edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=science/Nuclear+Physics)
• Nucleonica ..web driven nuclear science (http://www.nucleonica.net)
• Nuclear science wiki (http://www.nucleonica.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
• Nuclear Data Services - IAEA (http://www-nds.iaea.org)
Particle physics
Standard model of
particle physics
Large Hadron Collider tunnel at CERN
Particle physics is a branch of physics which studies the nature of particles that are the constituents of what is
usually referred to as matter and radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and
interact following their dynamics. Although the word "particle" can be used in reference to many objects (e.g. a
proton, a gas particle, or even household dust), the term "particle physics" usually refers to the study of the
fundamental objects of the universe – fields that must be defined in order to explain the observed particles, and that
cannot be defined by a combination of other fundamental fields. The current set of fundamental fields and their
dynamics are summarized in a theory called the Standard Model, therefore particle physics is largely the study of the
Standard Model's particle content and its possible extensions.
Particle physics 47
Subatomic particles
Modern particle physics research is focused
on subatomic particles, including atomic
constituents such as electrons, protons, and
neutrons (protons and neutrons are
composite particles called baryons, made of
quarks), produced by radioactive and
scattering processes, such as photons,
neutrinos, and muons, as well as a wide
range of exotic particles. To be specific, the
term particle is a misnomer from classical
physics because the dynamics of particle
physics are governed by quantum
mechanics. As such, they exhibit
wave-particle duality, displaying
particle-like behavior under certain The particle content of the Standard Model of Physics
experimental conditions and wave-like
behavior in others. In more technical terms, they are described by quantum state vectors in a Hilbert space, which is
also treated in quantum field theory. Following the convention of particle physicists, elementary particles refer to
objects such as electrons and photons as it is well known that those types of particles display wave-like properties as
well.
Elementary Particles
Types Generations Antiparticle Colors Total
Quarks 2 3 Pair 3 36
Leptons 2 3 Pair None 12
Gluons 1 1 Own 8 8
W 1 1 Pair None 2
Z 1 1 Own None 1
Photon 1 1 Own None 1
Higgs 1 1 Own None 1
Total 61
All particles, and their interactions observed to date, can be described almost entirely by a quantum field theory
called the Standard Model. The Standard Model has 61 elementary particles. Those elementary particles can
combine to form composite particles, accounting for the hundreds of other species of particles that have been
discovered since the 1960s. The Standard Model has been found to agree with almost all the experimental tests
conducted to date. However, most particle physicists believe that it is an incomplete description of nature, and that a
more fundamental theory awaits discovery (See Theory of Everything). In recent years, measurements of neutrino
mass have provided the first experimental deviations from the Standard Model.
Particle physics 48
History
Modern
physics
The idea that all matter is composed of elementary particles dates to at least the 6th century BC. The philosophical
doctrine of atomism and the nature of elementary particles were studied by ancient Greek philosophers such as
Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus; ancient Indian philosophers such as Kanada, Dignāga, and Dharmakirti;
Muslim scientists such as Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Sina, and Mohammad al-Ghazali; and in early modern Europe by
physicists such as Pierre Gassendi, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton. The particle theory of light was also proposed
by Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Sina, Gassendi, and Newton. Those early ideas were founded through abstract, philosophical
reasoning rather than experimentation and empirical observation.
In the 19th century, John Dalton, through his work on stoichiometry, concluded that each element of nature was
composed of a single, unique type of particle. Dalton and his contemporaries believed those were the fundamental
particles of nature and thus named them atoms, after the Greek word atomos, meaning "indivisible". However, near
the end of that century, physicists discovered that atoms are not, in fact, the fundamental particles of nature, but
conglomerates of even smaller particles. The early 20th-century explorations of nuclear physics and quantum physics
culminated in proofs of nuclear fission in 1939 by Lise Meitner (based on experiments by Otto Hahn), and nuclear
fusion by Hans Bethe in that same year. Those discoveries gave rise to an active industry of generating one atom
from another, even rendering possible (although it will probably never be profitable) the transmutation of lead into
gold; and, those same discoveries also led to the development of nuclear weapons. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s,
a bewildering variety of particles were found in scattering experiments. It was referred to as the "particle zoo". That
term was deprecated after the formulation of the Standard Model during the 1970s in which the large number of
particles was explained as combinations of a (relatively) small number of fundamental particles.
Standard Model
The current state of the classification of all elementary particles is explained by the Standard Model. It describes the
strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental interactions, using mediating gauge bosons. The species of gauge
bosons are the gluons, W−, W+ and Z bosons, and the photons. The Standard Model also contains 24 fundamental
particles, (12 particles and their associated anti-particles), which are the constituents of all matter. Finally, the
Standard Model also predicted the existence of a type of boson known as the Higgs boson. Early in the morning on
July 4, 2012, physicists with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced they have found a new particle that
behaves similarly to what is expected from the Higgs boson.[1] Quarks and electrons were before this discovery not
considered to be composed of other particles. However, with the discovery and verification of the existence of the
Higgs boson, which gives other particles their mass, this belief has been changed.
Particle physics 49
Experimental laboratories
In particle physics, the major international laboratories are located at the:
• Brookhaven National Laboratory (Long Island, United States). Its main facility is the Relativistic Heavy Ion
Collider (RHIC), which collides heavy ions such as gold ions and polarized protons. It is the world's first heavy
ion collider, and the world's only polarized proton collider.Wikipedia:Verifiability
• Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (Novosibirsk, Russia). Its main projects are now the electron-positron
colliders VEPP-2000, operated since 2006, and VEPP-4, started experiments in 1994. Earlier facilities include the
first electron-electron beam-beam collider VEP-1, which conducted experiments from 1964 to 1968; the
electron-positron colliders VEPP-2, operated from 1965 to 1974; and, its successor VEPP-2M, performed
experiments from 1974 to 2000.
• CERN, (Franco-Swiss border, near Geneva). Its main project is now the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which had
its first beam circulation on 10 September 2008, and is now the world's most energetic collider of protons. It also
became the most energetic collider of heavy ions after it began colliding lead ions. Earlier facilities include the
Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP), which was stopped on November 2, 2000 and then dismantled to give
way for LHC; and the Super Proton Synchrotron, which is being reused as a pre-accelerator for the LHC.
• DESY (Hamburg, Germany). Its main facility is the Hadron Elektron Ring Anlage (HERA), which collides
electrons and positrons with protons.
• Fermilab, (Batavia, United States). Its main facility until 2011 was the Tevatron, which collided protons and
antiprotons and was the highest-energy particle collider on earth until the Large Hadron Collider surpassed it on
29 November 2009.
• KEK, (Tsukuba, Japan). It is the home of a number of experiments such as the K2K experiment, a neutrino
oscillation experiment and Belle, an experiment measuring the CP violation of B mesons.
Many other particle accelerators do exist.
The techniques required to do modern, experimental, particle physics are quite varied and complex, constituting a
sub-specialty nearly completely distinct from the theoretical side of the field.
Theory
Quantum field theory
Feynman diagram
History
Theoretical particle physics attempts to develop the models, theoretical framework, and mathematical tools to
understand current experiments and make predictions for future experiments. See also theoretical physics. There are
several major interrelated efforts being made in theoretical particle physics today. One important branch attempts to
better understand the Standard Model and its tests. By extracting the parameters of the Standard Model, from
Particle physics 50
experiments with less uncertainty, this work probes the limits of the Standard Model and therefore expands our
understanding of nature's building blocks. Those efforts are made challenging by the difficulty of calculating
quantities in quantum chromodynamics. Some theorists working in this area refer to themselves as
phenomenologists and they may use the tools of quantum field theory and effective field theory. Others make use of
lattice field theory and call themselves lattice theorists.
Another major effort is in model building where model builders develop ideas for what physics may lie beyond the
Standard Model (at higher energies or smaller distances). This work is often motivated by the hierarchy problem and
is constrained by existing experimental data. It may involve work on supersymmetry, alternatives to the Higgs
mechanism, extra spatial dimensions (such as the Randall-Sundrum models), Preon theory, combinations of these, or
other ideas.
A third major effort in theoretical particle physics is string theory. String theorists attempt to construct a unified
description of quantum mechanics and general relativity by building a theory based on small strings, and branes
rather than particles. If the theory is successful, it may be considered a "Theory of Everything".
There are also other areas of work in theoretical particle physics ranging from particle cosmology to loop quantum
gravity.
This division of efforts in particle physics is reflected in the names of categories on the arXiv, a preprint archive:[2]
hep-th (theory), hep-ph (phenomenology), hep-ex (experiments), hep-lat (lattice gauge theory).
Practical applications
In principle, all physics (and practical applications developed therefrom) can be derived from the study of
fundamental particles. In practice, even if "particle physics" is taken to mean only "high-energy atom smashers",
many technologies have been developed during these pioneering investigations that later find wide uses in society.
Cyclotrons are used to produce medical isotopes for research and treatment (for example, isotopes used in PET
imaging), or used directly for certain cancer treatments. The development of Superconductors has been pushed
forward by their use in particle physics. The World Wide Web and touchscreen technology were initially developed
at CERN.
Additional applications are found in medicine, national security, industry, computing, science, and workforce
development, illustrating a long and growing list of beneficial practical applications with contributions from particle
physics.
Future
The primary goal, which is pursued in several distinct ways, is to find and understand what physics may lie beyond
the standard model. There are several powerful experimental reasons to expect new physics, including dark matter
and neutrino mass. There are also theoretical hints that this new physics should be found at accessible energy scales.
Furthermore, there may be surprises that will give us opportunities to learn about nature.
Much of the effort to find this new physics are focused on new collider experiments. The Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) was completed in 2008 to help continue the search for the Higgs boson, supersymmetric particles, and other
new physics. An intermediate goal is the construction of the International Linear Collider (ILC), which will
complement the LHC by allowing more precise measurements of the properties of newly found particles. In August
2004, a decision for the technology of the ILC was taken but the site has still to be agreed upon.
In addition, there are important non-collider experiments that also attempt to find and understand physics beyond the
Standard Model. One important non-collider effort is the determination of the neutrino masses, since these masses
may arise from neutrinos mixing with very heavy particles. In addition, cosmological observations provide many
useful constraints on the dark matter, although it may be impossible to determine the exact nature of the dark matter
without the colliders. Finally, lower bounds on the very long lifetime of the proton put constraints on Grand Unified
Particle physics 51
Theories at energy scales much higher than collider experiments will be able to probe any time soon.
References
[1] http:/ / www. wired. com/ wiredscience/ 2012/ 07/ higgs-boson-discovery/
[2] arxiv.org (http:/ / www. arxiv. org)
Further reading
Introductory reading
• Frank Close (2004) Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280434-0.
• Close, Frank; Marten, Michael; Sutton, Christine (2004). The particle odyssey: a journey to the heart of the
matter (http://books.google.com/?id=PX87qqj5B2UC&dq=rolf+wideroe,+lawrence). Oxford University
Press. ISBN 9780198609438.
• Ford, Kenneth W. (2005) The Quantum World. Harvard Univ. Press.
• Oerter, Robert (2006) The Theory of Almost Everything: The Standard Model, the Unsung Triumph of Modern
Physics. Plume.
• Schumm, Bruce A. (2004) Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics. Johns Hopkins
Univ. Press. ISBN 0-8018-7971-X.
• Riazuddin. "An Overview of Particle Physics and Cosmology" (http://indico.ncp.edu.pk/indico/getFile.py/
access?sessionId=0&resId=0&materialId=0&confId=10). NCP Journal of Physics (Dr. Professor Riazuddin,
High Energy Theory Group, and senior scientist at the National Center for Nuclear Physics) 1 (1): 50.
• Frank Close (2006) The New Cosmic Onion. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1-58488-798-2.
Advanced reading
• Robinson, Matthew B., Gerald Cleaver, and J. R. Dittmann (2008) "A Simple Introduction to Particle Physics" -
Part 1, 135pp. (http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.3328v1) and Part 2, nnnpp. (http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1395v1)
Baylor University Dept. of Physics.
• Griffiths, David J. (1987). Introduction to Elementary Particles. Wiley, John & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-60386-4.
• Kane, Gordon L. (1987). Modern Elementary Particle Physics. Perseus Books. ISBN 0-201-11749-5.
• Perkins, Donald H. (1999). Introduction to High Energy Physics. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-62196-8.
• Povh, Bogdan (1995). Particles and Nuclei: An Introduction to the Physical Concepts. Springer-Verlag.
ISBN 0-387-59439-6.
• Boyarkin, Oleg (2011). Advanced Particle Physics Two-Volume Set. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4398-0412-4.
External links
• Symmetry magazine (http://www.symmetrymagazine.org)
• Fermilab (http://www.fnal.gov/)
• Particle physics – it matters (http://www.iop.org/publications/iop/2009/page_38211.html) - the Institute of
Physics
• Nobes, Matthew (2002) "Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics" on Kuro5hin: Part 1, (http://
www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/5/1/3712/31700) Part 2, (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/5/14/
19363/8142) Part 3a, (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/7/15/173318/784) Part 3b. (http://www.
kuro5hin.org/story/2002/8/21/195035/576)
• CERN (http://public.web.cern.ch/public/) - European Organization for Nuclear Research
• The Particle Adventure (http://particleadventure.org/) - educational project sponsored by the Particle Data
Group of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
Photon 52
Photon
Photon
Photons emitted in a coherent beam from a laser
Composition Elementary particle
Statistics Bosonic
Interactions Electromagnetic
Symbol γ, hν, or ħω
Theorized Albert Einstein
Mass 0
<1×10−18 eV/c2
Mean lifetime Stable
Electric charge 0
<1×10−35 e
Spin 1
Parity −1
C parity −1
Condensed I(JPC)=0,1(1−−)
A photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation, and the
force carrier for the electromagnetic force, even when static via virtual photons. The effects of this force are easily
observable at both the microscopic and macroscopic level, because the photon has zero rest mass; this allows long
distance interactions. Like all elementary particles, photons are currently best explained by quantum mechanics and
exhibit wave–particle duality, exhibiting properties of both waves and particles. For example, a single photon may
be refracted by a lens or exhibit wave interference with itself, but also act as a particle giving a definite result when
its position is measured.
The modern photon concept was developed gradually by Albert Einstein to explain experimental observations that
did not fit the classical wave model of light. In particular, the photon model accounted for the frequency dependence
of light's energy, and explained the ability of matter and radiation to be in thermal equilibrium. It also accounted for
anomalous observations, including the properties of black body radiation, that other physicists, most notably Max
Planck, had sought to explain using semiclassical models, in which light is still described by Maxwell's equations,
but the material objects that emit and absorb light, do so in amounts of energy that are quantized (i.e., they change
energy only by certain particular discrete amounts and cannot change energy in any arbitrary way). Although these
semiclassical models contributed to the development of quantum mechanics, many further experiments starting with
Compton scattering of single photons by electrons, first observed in 1923, validated Einstein's hypothesis that light
itself is quantized. In 1926 the chemist Gilbert N. Lewis coined the name photon for these particles, and after 1927,
when Arthur H. Compton won the Nobel Prize for his scattering studies, most scientists accepted the validity that
Photon 53
quanta of light have an independent existence, and Lewis' term photon for light quanta was accepted.
In the Standard Model of particle physics, photons are described as a necessary consequence of physical laws having
a certain symmetry at every point in spacetime. The intrinsic properties of photons, such as charge, mass and spin,
are determined by the properties of this gauge symmetry. The photon concept has led to momentous advances in
experimental and theoretical physics, such as lasers, Bose–Einstein condensation, quantum field theory, and the
probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. It has been applied to photochemistry, high-resolution
microscopy, and measurements of molecular distances. Recently, photons have been studied as elements of quantum
computers and for sophisticated applications in optical communication such as quantum cryptography. In the fine
arts, photons is what makes photography possible, and in biology photons enable humans and other organisms to
have vision.
Nomenclature
Standard model of
particle physics
Large Hadron Collider tunnel at CERN
In 1900, Max Planck was working on black-body radiation and suggested that the energy in electromagnetic waves
could only be released in "packets" of energy. In his 1901 article in Annalen der Physik he called these packets
"energy elements". The word quanta (singular quantum) was used even before 1900 to mean particles or amounts of
different quantities, including electricity. Later, in 1905 Albert Einstein went further by suggesting that
electromagnetic waves could only exist in these discrete wave-packets.[1] He called such a wave-packet the light
quantum (German: das Lichtquant). The name photon derives from the Greek word for light, φῶς (transliterated
phôs), and was coined[2] in 1926 by the physical chemist Gilbert Lewis, who published a speculative theory in which
photons were "uncreatable and indestructible". Although Lewis' theory was never accepted as it was contradicted by
many experiments, his new name, photon, was adopted immediately by most physicists. Isaac Asimov credits Arthur
Compton with defining quanta of energy as photons in 1923.
In physics, a photon is usually denoted by the symbol γ (the Greek letter gamma). This symbol for the photon
probably derives from gamma rays, which were discovered in 1900 by Paul Villard, named by Ernest Rutherford in
1903, and shown to be a form of electromagnetic radiation in 1914 by Rutherford and Edward Andrade. In chemistry
and optical engineering, photons are usually symbolized by hν, the energy of a photon, where h is Planck's constant
and the Greek letter ν (nu) is the photon's frequency. Much less commonly, the photon can be symbolized by hf,
where its frequency is denoted by f.
Photon 54
Physical properties
A photon is massless,[3] has no electric charge, and is stable. A photon
has two possible polarization states. In the momentum representation,
which is preferred in quantum field theory, a photon is described by its
wave vector, which determines its wavelength λ and its direction of
propagation. A photon's wave vector may not be zero and can be
represented either as a spacial 3-vector or as a (relativistic) four-vector;
in the latter case it belongs to the light cone (pictured). Different signs
of the four-vector denote different circular polarizations, but in the
3-vector representation one should account for the polarization state
separately; it actually is a spin quantum number. In both cases the
space of possible wave vectors is three-dimensional.
The photon is the gauge boson for electromagnetism,[4] and therefore

all other quantum numbers of the photon (such as lepton number,
baryon number, and flavour quantum numbers) are zero.[5]
Photons are emitted in many natural processes. For example, when a
charge is accelerated it emits synchrotron radiation. During a
molecular, atomic or nuclear transition to a lower energy level, photons
The cone shows possible values of wave 4-vector
of various energy will be emitted, from radio waves to gamma rays. A of a photon. Green and indigo represent left and
photon can also be emitted when a particle and its corresponding right polarization
antiparticle are annihilated (for example, electron–positron
annihilation).
In empty space, the photon moves at c (the speed of light) and its energy and momentum are related by E = pc,
where p is the magnitude of the momentum vector p. This derives from the following relativistic relation, with m =
0:[6]
The energy and momentum of a photon depend only on its frequency (ν) or inversely, its wavelength (λ):
where k is the wave vector (where the wave number k = |k| = 2π/λ), ω = 2πν is the angular frequency, and ħ = h/2π
is the reduced Planck constant.[7]
Since p points in the direction of the photon's propagation, the magnitude of the momentum is
The photon also carries spin angular momentum that does not depend on its frequency.[8] The magnitude of its spin
is and the component measured along its direction of motion, its helicity, must be ±ħ. These two possible
helicities, called right-handed and left-handed, correspond to the two possible circular polarization states of the
photon.[9]
To illustrate the significance of these formulae, the annihilation of a particle with its antiparticle in free space must
result in the creation of at least two photons for the following reason. In the center of mass frame, the colliding
antiparticles have no net momentum, whereas a single photon always has momentum (since it is determined, as we
have seen, only by the photon's frequency or wavelength—which cannot be zero). Hence, conservation of
momentum (or equivalently, translational invariance) requires that at least two photons are created, with zero net
Photon 55
momentum. (However, it is possible if the system interacts with another particle or field for annihilation to produce
one photon, as when a positron annihilates with a bound atomic electron, it is possible for only one photon to be
emitted, as the nuclear Coulomb field breaks translational symmetry.) The energy of the two photons, or,
equivalently, their frequency, may be determined from conservation of four-momentum. Seen another way, the
photon can be considered as its own antiparticle. The reverse process, pair production, is the dominant mechanism
by which high-energy photons such as gamma rays lose energy while passing through matter.[10] That process is the
reverse of "annihilation to one photon" allowed in the electric field of an atomic nucleus.
The classical formulae for the energy and momentum of electromagnetic radiation can be re-expressed in terms of
photon events. For example, the pressure of electromagnetic radiation on an object derives from the transfer of
photon momentum per unit time and unit area to that object, since pressure is force per unit area and force is the
change in momentum per unit time.[11]
Experimental checks on photon mass

The photon is currently understood to be strictly massless, but this is an experimental question. If the photon is not a
strictly massless particle, it would not move at the exact speed of light in vacuum, c. Its speed would be lower and
depend on its frequency. Relativity would be unaffected by this; the so-called speed of light, c, would then not be the
actual speed at which light moves, but a constant of nature which is the maximum speed that any object could
theoretically attain in space-time. Thus, it would still be the speed of space-time ripples (gravitational waves and
gravitons), but it would not be the speed of photons.
A massive photon would have other effects as well. Coulomb's law would be modified and the electromagnetic field
would have an extra physical degree of freedom. These effects yield more sensitive experimental probes of the
photon mass than the frequency dependence of the speed of light. If Coulomb's law is not exactly valid, then that
would cause the presence of an electric field inside a hollow conductor when it is subjected to an external electric
field. This thus allows one to test Coulomb's law to very high precision. A null result of such an experiment has set a
limit of m ≲ 10−14 eV/c2.
Sharper upper limits have been obtained in experiments designed to detect effects caused by the galactic vector
potential. Although the galactic vector potential is very large because the galactic magnetic field exists on very long
length scales, the magnetic field is only observable if the photon is massless. In case of a massive photon, the mass
term would affect the galactic plasma. The fact that no such effects are seen implies an upper bound on
the photon mass of m < 3×10−27 eV/c2. The galactic vector potential can also be probed directly by measuring the
torque exerted on a magnetized ring. Such methods were used to obtain the sharper upper limit of 10−18eV/c2 (the
equivalent of 1.07×10−27 atomic mass units) given by the Particle Data Group.[12]
These sharp limits from the non-observation of the effects caused by the galactic vector potential have been shown to
be model dependent.[13] If the photon mass is generated via the Higgs mechanism then the upper limit of
m≲10−14 eV/c2 from the test of Coulomb's law is valid.
Photons inside superconductors do develop a nonzero effective rest mass; as a result, electromagnetic forces become
short-range inside superconductors.
Photon 56
Historical development
In most theories up to the eighteenth century, light was pictured as
being made up of particles. Since particle models cannot easily
account for the refraction, diffraction and birefringence of light,
wave theories of light were proposed by René Descartes (1637),
Robert Hooke (1665), and Christian Huygens (1678);[14] however,
particle models remained dominant, chiefly due to the influence of
Isaac Newton. In the early nineteenth century, Thomas Young and
Thomas Young's double-slit experiment in 1805
August Fresnel clearly demonstrated the interference and
showed that light can act as a wave, helping to defeat
early particle theories of light. diffraction of light and by 1850 wave models were generally
accepted. In 1865, James Clerk Maxwell's prediction[15] that light
was an electromagnetic wave—which was confirmed experimentally in 1888 by Heinrich Hertz's detection of radio
waves—seemed to be the final blow to particle models of light.
The Maxwell wave theory, however,

does not account for all properties of
light. The Maxwell theory predicts that
the energy of a light wave depends
only on its intensity, not on its
frequency; nevertheless, several
independent types of experiments
show that the energy imparted by light
to atoms depends only on the light's
frequency, not on its intensity. For
example, some chemical reactions are
In 1900, Maxwell's theoretical model of light as oscillating electric and magnetic fields
provoked only by light of frequency
seemed complete. However, several observations could not be explained by any wave
higher than a certain threshold; light of model of electromagnetic radiation, leading to the idea that light-energy was packaged
frequency lower than the threshold, no into quanta described by E=hν. Later experiments showed that these light-quanta also
matter how intense, does not initiate carry momentum and, thus, can be considered particles: the photon concept was born,
leading to a deeper understanding of the electric and magnetic fields themselves.
the reaction. Similarly, electrons can
be ejected from a metal plate by
shining light of sufficiently high frequency on it (the photoelectric effect); the energy of the ejected electron is
related only to the light's frequency, not to its intensity.[16][17]
At the same time, investigations of blackbody radiation carried out over four decades (1860–1900) by various
researchers culminated in Max Planck's hypothesis[] that the energy of any system that absorbs or emits
electromagnetic radiation of frequency ν is an integer multiple of an energy quantum E=hν. As shown by Albert
Einstein, some form of energy quantization must be assumed to account for the thermal equilibrium observed
between matter and electromagnetic radiation; for this explanation of the photoelectric effect, Einstein received the
1921 Nobel Prize in physics.[18]
Since the Maxwell theory of light allows for all possible energies of electromagnetic radiation, most physicists
assumed initially that the energy quantization resulted from some unknown constraint on the matter that absorbs or
emits the radiation. In 1905, Einstein was the first to propose that energy quantization was a property of
electromagnetic radiation itself. Although he accepted the validity of Maxwell's theory, Einstein pointed out that
many anomalous experiments could be explained if the energy of a Maxwellian light wave were localized into
point-like quanta that move independently of one another, even if the wave itself is spread continuously over space.
In 1909[] and 1916,[19] Einstein showed that, if Planck's law of black-body radiation is accepted, the energy quanta
Photon 57
must also carry momentum p=h/λ, making them full-fledged particles. This photon momentum was observed
experimentally by Arthur Compton, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1927. The pivotal question was then:
how to unify Maxwell's wave theory of light with its experimentally observed particle nature? The answer to this
question occupied Albert Einstein for the rest of his life, and was solved in quantum electrodynamics and its
successor, the Standard Model (see Second quantization and The photon as a gauge boson, below).
Early objections
Einstein's 1905 predictions were verified
experimentally in several ways in the first two decades
of the 20th century, as recounted in Robert Millikan's
Nobel lecture. However, before Compton's experiment
showing that photons carried momentum proportional
to their wave number (or frequency) (1922), most
physicists were reluctant to believe that
electromagnetic radiation itself might be particulate.
(See, for example, the Nobel lectures of Wien, Planck
and Millikan.). Instead, there was a widespread belief
that energy quantization resulted from some unknown
constraint on the matter that absorbs or emits radiation.
Attitudes changed over time. In part, the change can be
traced to experiments such as Compton scattering,
Up to 1923, most physicists were reluctant to accept that light itself
where it was much more difficult not to ascribe
was quantized. Instead, they tried to explain photon behavior by
quantization to light itself to explain the observed quantizing only matter, as in the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom
results. (shown here). Even though these semiclassical models were only a
first approximation, they were accurate for simple systems and they
Even after Compton's experiment, Niels Bohr, Hendrik led to quantum mechanics.
Kramers and John Slater made one last attempt to

preserve the Maxwellian continuous electromagnetic field model of light, the so-called BKS model.[20] To account
for the data then available, two drastic hypotheses had to be made:
1. Energy and momentum are conserved only on the average in interactions between matter and radiation,
not in elementary processes such as absorption and emission. This allows one to reconcile the discontinuously
changing energy of the atom (jump between energy states) with the continuous release of energy into radiation.
2. Causality is abandoned. For example, spontaneous emissions are merely emissions induced by a "virtual"
electromagnetic field.
However, refined Compton experiments showed that energy-momentum is conserved extraordinarily well in
elementary processes; and also that the jolting of the electron and the generation of a new photon in Compton
scattering obey causality to within 10 ps. Accordingly, Bohr and his co-workers gave their model "as honorable a
funeral as possible". Nevertheless, the failures of the BKS model inspired Werner Heisenberg in his development of
matrix mechanics.
A few physicists persisted in developing semiclassical models in which electromagnetic radiation is not quantized,
but matter appears to obey the laws of quantum mechanics. Although the evidence for photons from chemical and
physical experiments was overwhelming by the 1970s, this evidence could not be considered as absolutely
definitive; since it relied on the interaction of light with matter, a sufficiently complicated theory of matter could in
principle account for the evidence. Nevertheless, all semiclassical theories were refuted definitively in the 1970s and
1980s by photon-correlation experiments.[21] Hence, Einstein's hypothesis that quantization is a property of light
itself is considered to be proven.
Photon 58
Wave–particle duality and uncertainty principles

Photons, like all quantum objects, exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties. Their dual wave–particle
nature can be difficult to visualize. The photon displays clearly wave-like phenomena such as diffraction and
interference on the length scale of its wavelength. For example, a single photon passing through a double-slit
experiment lands on the screen exhibiting interference phenomena but only if no measure was made on the actual slit
being run across. To account for the particle interpretation that phenomenon is called probability distribution but
behaves according to Maxwell's equations. However, experiments confirm that the photon is not a short pulse of
electromagnetic radiation; it does not spread out as it propagates, nor does it divide when it encounters a beam
splitter. Rather, the photon seems to be a point-like particle since it is absorbed or emitted as a whole by arbitrarily
small systems, systems much smaller than its wavelength, such as an atomic nucleus (≈10−15 m across) or even the
point-like electron. Nevertheless, the photon is not a point-like particle whose trajectory is shaped probabilistically
by the electromagnetic field, as conceived by Einstein and others; that hypothesis was also refuted by the
photon-correlation experiments cited above. According to our present understanding, the electromagnetic field itself
is produced by photons, which in turn result from a local gauge symmetry and the laws of quantum field theory (see
the Second quantization and Gauge boson sections below).
A key element of quantum mechanics is Heisenberg's uncertainty
principle, which forbids the simultaneous measurement of the
position and momentum of a particle along the same direction.
Remarkably, the uncertainty principle for charged, material
particles requires the quantization of light into photons, and even
the frequency dependence of the photon's energy and momentum.
An elegant illustration is Heisenberg's thought experiment for
locating an electron with an ideal microscope. The position of the
electron can be determined to within the resolving power of the
microscope, which is given by a formula from classical optics
where is the aperture angle of the microscope. Thus, the

position uncertainty can be made arbitrarily small by
reducing the wavelength λ. The momentum of the electron is
uncertain, since it received a "kick" from the light scattering
from it into the microscope. If light were not quantized into Heisenberg's thought experiment for locating an
electron (shown in blue) with a high-resolution
photons, the uncertainty could be made arbitrarily small by
gamma-ray microscope. The incoming gamma ray
reducing the light's intensity. In that case, since the wavelength (shown in green) is scattered by the electron up into the
and intensity of light can be varied independently, one could microscope's aperture angle θ. The scattered gamma
simultaneously determine the position and momentum to ray is shown in red. Classical optics shows that the
electron position can be resolved only up to an
arbitrarily high accuracy, violating the uncertainty principle. By
uncertainty Δx that depends on θ and the wavelength λ
contrast, Einstein's formula for photon momentum preserves the of the incoming light.
uncertainty principle; since the photon is scattered anywhere
within the aperture, the uncertainty of momentum transferred
equals
giving the product , which is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Thus, the entire world is quantized;
both matter and fields must obey a consistent set of quantum laws, if either one is to be quantized.[22]
Photon 59
The analogous uncertainty principle for photons forbids the simultaneous measurement of the number of photons
(see Fock state and the Second quantization section below) in an electromagnetic wave and the phase of that
wave
See coherent state and squeezed coherent state for more details.
Both photons and material particles such as electrons create analogous interference patterns when passing through a
double-slit experiment. For photons, this corresponds to the interference of a Maxwell light wave whereas, for
material particles, this corresponds to the interference of the Schrödinger wave equation. Although this similarity
might suggest that Maxwell's equations are simply Schrödinger's equation for photons, most physicists do not agree.
For one thing, they are mathematically different; most obviously, Schrödinger's one equation solves for a complex
field, whereas Maxwell's four equations solve for real fields. More generally, the normal concept of a Schrödinger
probability wave function cannot be applied to photons. Being massless, they cannot be localized without being
destroyed; technically, photons cannot have a position eigenstate , and, thus, the normal Heisenberg uncertainty
principle does not pertain to photons. A few substitute wave functions have been suggested for the
photon, but they have not come into general use. Instead, physicists generally accept the second-quantized theory of
photons described below, quantum electrodynamics, in which photons are quantized excitations of electromagnetic
modes.
Bose–Einstein model of a photon gas

In 1924, Satyendra Nath Bose derived Planck's law of black-body radiation without using any electromagnetism, but
rather a modification of coarse-grained counting of phase space. Einstein showed that this modification is equivalent
to assuming that photons are rigorously identical and that it implied a "mysterious non-local interaction", now
understood as the requirement for a symmetric quantum mechanical state. This work led to the concept of coherent
states and the development of the laser. In the same papers, Einstein extended Bose's formalism to material particles
(bosons) and predicted that they would condense into their lowest quantum state at low enough temperatures; this
Bose–Einstein condensation was observed experimentally in 1995. It was later used by Lene Hau to slow, and then
completely stop, light in 1999 and 2001.
The modern view on this is that photons are, by virtue of their integer spin, bosons (as opposed to fermions with
half-integer spin). By the spin-statistics theorem, all bosons obey Bose–Einstein statistics (whereas all fermions obey
Fermi-Dirac statistics).
Stimulated and spontaneous emission

Photon 60
In 1916, Einstein showed that Planck's

radiation law could be derived from a
semi-classical, statistical treatment of
photons and atoms, which implies a
relation between the rates at which
atoms emit and absorb photons. The
condition follows from the assumption
that light is emitted and absorbed by
atoms independently, and that the
thermal equilibrium is preserved by Stimulated emission (in which photons "clone" themselves) was predicted by Einstein in
interaction with atoms. Consider a his kinetic analysis, and led to the development of the laser. Einstein's derivation inspired
further developments in the quantum treatment of light, which led to the statistical
cavity in thermal equilibrium and filled
interpretation of quantum mechanics.
with electromagnetic radiation and
atoms that can emit and absorb that
radiation. Thermal equilibrium requires that the energy density of photons with frequency (which is
proportional to their number density) is, on average, constant in time; hence, the rate at which photons of any
particular frequency are emitted must equal the rate of absorbing them.
Einstein began by postulating simple proportionality relations for the different reaction rates involved. In his model,
the rate for a system to absorb a photon of frequency and transition from a lower energy to a higher
energy is proportional to the number of atoms with energy and to the energy density of ambient
photons with that frequency,
where is the rate constant for absorption. For the reverse process, there are two possibilities: spontaneous
emission of a photon, and a return to the lower-energy state that is initiated by the interaction with a passing photon.
Following Einstein's approach, the corresponding rate for the emission of photons of frequency and
transition from a higher energy to a lower energy is
where is the rate constant for emitting a photon spontaneously, and is the rate constant for emitting it in
response to ambient photons (induced or stimulated emission). In thermodynamic equilibrium, the number of atoms
in state i and that of atoms in state j must, on average, be constant; hence, the rates and must be equal.
Also, by arguments analogous to the derivation of Boltzmann statistics, the ratio of and is
where are the degeneracy of the state i and that of j, respectively, their
energies, k the Boltzmann constant and T the system's temperature. From this, it is readily derived that
and
The A and Bs are collectively known as the Einstein coefficients.[23]

Einstein could not fully justify his rate equations, but claimed that it should be possible to calculate the coefficients
, and once physicists had obtained "mechanics and electrodynamics modified to accommodate the
quantum hypothesis".[24] In fact, in 1926, Paul Dirac derived the rate constants in using a semiclassical
approach, and, in 1927, succeeded in deriving all the rate constants from first principles within the framework of
quantum theory. Dirac's work was the foundation of quantum electrodynamics, i.e., the quantization of the
electromagnetic field itself. Dirac's approach is also called second quantization or quantum field theory; earlier
quantum mechanical treatments only treat material particles as quantum mechanical, not the electromagnetic field.
Photon 61
Einstein was troubled by the fact that his theory seemed incomplete, since it did not determine the direction of a
spontaneously emitted photon. A probabilistic nature of light-particle motion was first considered by Newton in his
treatment of birefringence and, more generally, of the splitting of light beams at interfaces into a transmitted beam
and a reflected beam. Newton hypothesized that hidden variables in the light particle determined which path it would
follow. Similarly, Einstein hoped for a more complete theory that would leave nothing to chance, beginning his
separation from quantum mechanics. Ironically, Max Born's probabilistic interpretation of the wave function was
inspired by Einstein's later work searching for a more complete theory.[25]
Second quantization
In 1910, Peter Debye derived Planck's law of black-body radiation
from a relatively simple assumption. He correctly decomposed the
electromagnetic field in a cavity into its Fourier modes, and
assumed that the energy in any mode was an integer multiple of
, where is the frequency of the electromagnetic mode.
Planck's law of black-body radiation follows immediately as a
geometric sum. However, Debye's approach failed to give the
correct formula for the energy fluctuations of blackbody radiation,
which were derived by Einstein in 1909.
In 1925, Born, Heisenberg and Jordan reinterpreted Debye's

concept in a key way. As may be shown classically, the Fourier
modes of the electromagnetic field—a complete set of
electromagnetic plane waves indexed by their wave vector k and
polarization state—are equivalent to a set of uncoupled simple Different electromagnetic modes (such as those
harmonic oscillators. Treated quantum mechanically, the energy depicted here) can be treated as independent simple
levels of such oscillators are known to be , where is harmonic oscillators. A photon corresponds to a unit of
energy E=hν in its electromagnetic mode.
the oscillator frequency. The key new step was to identify an
electromagnetic mode with energy as a state with
photons, each of energy . This approach gives the correct energy fluctuation formula.
Photon 62
Dirac took this one step further. He treated the interaction between a
charge and an electromagnetic field as a small perturbation that
induces transitions in the photon states, changing the numbers of
photons in the modes, while conserving energy and momentum overall.
Dirac was able to derive Einstein's and coefficients from
first principles, and showed that the Bose–Einstein statistics of photons
is a natural consequence of quantizing the electromagnetic field
correctly (Bose's reasoning went in the opposite direction; he derived
Planck's law of black body radiation by assuming B–E statistics). In
Dirac's time, it was not yet known that all bosons, including photons,
must obey Bose–Einstein statistics.
Dirac's second-order perturbation theory can involve virtual photons,
In quantum field theory, the probability of an
event is computed by summing the probability transient intermediate states of the electromagnetic field; the static
amplitude (a complex number) for all possible electric and magnetic interactions are mediated by such virtual
ways in which the event can occur, as in the photons. In such quantum field theories, the probability amplitude of
Feynman diagram shown here; the probability
observable events is calculated by summing over all possible
equals the square of the modulus of the total
amplitude. intermediate steps, even ones that are unphysical; hence, virtual
photons are not constrained to satisfy , and may have extra
polarization states; depending on the gauge used, virtual photons may have three or four polarization states, instead
of the two states of real photons. Although these transient virtual photons can never be observed, they contribute
measurably to the probabilities of observable events. Indeed, such second-order and higher-order perturbation
calculations can give apparently infinite contributions to the sum. Such unphysical results are corrected for using the
technique of renormalization. Other virtual particles may contribute to the summation as well; for example, two
photons may interact indirectly through virtual electron-positron pairs.[26] In fact, such photon-photon scattering, as
well as electron-photon scattering, is meant to be one of the modes of operations of the planned particle accelerator,
the International Linear Collider.
In modern physics notation, the quantum state of the electromagnetic field is written as a Fock state, a tensor product
of the states for each electromagnetic mode
where represents the state in which photons are in the mode . In this notation, the creation of a new
photon in mode (e.g., emitted from an atomic transition) is written as . This notation
merely expresses the concept of Born, Heisenberg and Jordan described above, and does not add any physics.
The hadronic properties of the photon

Measurements of the interaction between energetic photons and hadrons show that the interaction is much more
intense than expected by the interaction of merely photons with the hadron's electric charge. Furthermore, the
interaction of energetic photons with protons is similar to the interaction of photons with neutrons[27] in spite of the
fact that the electric charge structures of protons and neutrons are substantially different.
A theory called Vector Meson Dominance (VMD) was developed to explain this effect. According to VMD, the
photon is a superposition of the pure electromagnetic photon (which interacts only with electric charges) and vector
meson.[28]
However, if experimentally probed at very short distances, the intrinsic structure of the photon is recognized as a
flux of quark and gluon components, quasi-free according to asymptotic freedom in QCD and described by the
photon structure function.[29][30] A comprehensive comparison of data with theoretical predictions is presented in a
recent review.[31]
Photon 63
The photon as a gauge boson

The electromagnetic field can be understood as a gauge field, i.e., as a field that results from requiring that a gauge
symmetry holds independently at every position in spacetime. For the electromagnetic field, this gauge symmetry is
the Abelian U(1) symmetry of a complex number, which reflects the ability to vary the phase of a complex number
without affecting observables or real valued functions made from it, such as the energy or the Lagrangian.
The quanta of an Abelian gauge field must be massless, uncharged bosons, as long as the symmetry is not broken;
hence, the photon is predicted to be massless, and to have zero electric charge and integer spin. The particular form
of the electromagnetic interaction specifies that the photon must have spin ±1; thus, its helicity must be . These
two spin components correspond to the classical concepts of right-handed and left-handed circularly polarized light.
However, the transient virtual photons of quantum electrodynamics may also adopt unphysical polarization states.
In the prevailing Standard Model of physics, the photon is one of four gauge bosons in the electroweak interaction;
the other three are denoted W+, W− and Z0 and are responsible for the weak interaction. Unlike the photon, these
gauge bosons have mass, owing to a mechanism that breaks their SU(2) gauge symmetry. The unification of the
photon with W and Z gauge bosons in the electroweak interaction was accomplished by Sheldon Glashow, Abdus
Salam and Steven Weinberg, for which they were awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics.[32][33][34] Physicists
continue to hypothesize grand unified theories that connect these four gauge bosons with the eight gluon gauge
bosons of quantum chromodynamics; however, key predictions of these theories, such as proton decay, have not
been observed experimentally.[35]
Contributions to the mass of a system

The energy of a system that emits a photon is decreased by the energy of the photon as measured in the rest
frame of the emitting system, which may result in a reduction in mass in the amount . Similarly, the mass of a
system that absorbs a photon is increased by a corresponding amount. As an application, the energy balance of
nuclear reactions involving photons is commonly written in terms of the masses of the nuclei involved, and terms of
the form for the gamma photons (and for other relevant energies, such as the recoil energy of nuclei).[36]
This concept is applied in key predictions of quantum electrodynamics (QED, see above). In that theory, the mass of
electrons (or, more generally, leptons) is modified by including the mass contributions of virtual photons, in a
technique known as renormalization. Such "radiative corrections" contribute to a number of predictions of QED,
such as the magnetic dipole moment of leptons, the Lamb shift, and the hyperfine structure of bound lepton pairs,
such as muonium and positronium.[37]
Since photons contribute to the stress-energy tensor, they exert a gravitational attraction on other objects, according
to the theory of general relativity. Conversely, photons are themselves affected by gravity; their normally straight
trajectories may be bent by warped spacetime, as in gravitational lensing, and their frequencies may be lowered by
moving to a higher gravitational potential, as in the Pound-Rebka experiment. However, these effects are not specific
to photons; exactly the same effects would be predicted for classical electromagnetic waves.[38]
Photons in matter
Any 'explanation' of how photons travel through matter has to explain why different arrangements of matter are
transparent or opaque at different wavelengths (light through carbon as diamond or not, as graphite) and why
individual photons behave in the same way as large groups. Explanations that invoke 'absorption' and 're-emission'
have to provide an explanation for the directionality of the photons (diffraction, reflection) and further explain how
entangled photon pairs can travel through matter without their quantum state collapsing.
The simplest explanation is that light that travels through transparent matter does so at a lower speed than c, the
speed of light in a vacuum. In addition, light can also undergo scattering and absorption. There are circumstances in
which heat transfer through a material is mostly radiative, involving emission and absorption of photons within it.
Photon 64
An example would be in the core of the Sun. Energy can take about a million years to reach the surface. However,
this phenomenon is distinct from scattered radiation passing diffusely through matter, as it involves local equilibrium
between the radiation and the temperature. Thus, the time is how long it takes the energy to be transferred, not the
photons themselves. Once in open space, a photon from the Sun takes only 8.3 minutes to reach Earth. The factor by
which the speed of light is decreased in a material is called the refractive index of the material. In a classical wave
picture, the slowing can be explained by the light inducing electric polarization in the matter, the polarized matter
radiating new light, and the new light interfering with the original light wave to form a delayed wave. In a particle
picture, the slowing can instead be described as a blending of the photon with quantum excitation of the matter
(quasi-particles such as phonons and excitons) to form a polariton; this polariton has a nonzero effective mass, which
means that it cannot travel at c.
Alternatively, photons may be viewed as always traveling at c, even in matter, but they have their phase shifted
(delayed or advanced) upon interaction with atomic scatters: this modifies their wavelength and momentum, but not
speed.[39] A light wave made up of these photons does travel slower than the speed of light. In this view the photons
are "bare", and are scattered and phase shifted, while in the view of the preceding paragraph the photons are
"dressed" by their interaction with matter, and move without scattering or phase shifting, but at a lower speed.
Light of different frequencies may travel through matter at different speeds; this is called dispersion. In some cases,
it can result in extremely slow speeds of light in matter. The effects of photon interactions with other quasi-particles
may be observed directly in Raman scattering and Brillouin scattering.[40]
Photons can also be absorbed by nuclei, atoms or molecules, provoking transitions between their energy levels. A
classic example is the molecular transition of retinal C20H28O, which is responsible for vision, as discovered in 1958
by Nobel laureate biochemist George Wald and co-workers. The absorption provokes a cis-trans isomerization that,
in combination with other such transitions, is transduced into nerve impulses. The absorption of photons can even
break chemical bonds, as in the photodissociation of chlorine; this is the subject of photochemistry.[41][42]
Analogously, gamma rays can in some circumstances dissociate atomic nuclei in a process called
photodisintegration.
Technological applications
Photons have many applications in technology. These examples are chosen to illustrate applications of photons per
se, rather than general optical devices such as lenses, etc. that could operate under a classical theory of light. The
laser is an extremely important application and is discussed above under stimulated emission.
Individual photons can be detected by several methods. The classic photomultiplier tube exploits the photoelectric
effect: a photon landing on a metal plate ejects an electron, initiating an ever-amplifying avalanche of electrons.
Charge-coupled device chips use a similar effect in semiconductors: an incident photon generates a charge on a
microscopic capacitor that can be detected. Other detectors such as Geiger counters use the ability of photons to
ionize gas molecules, causing a detectable change in conductivity.[43]
Planck's energy formula is often used by engineers and chemists in design, both to compute the change in
energy resulting from a photon absorption and to predict the frequency of the light emitted for a given energy
transition. For example, the emission spectrum of a fluorescent light bulb can be designed using gas molecules with
different electronic energy levels and adjusting the typical energy with which an electron hits the gas molecules
within the bulb.[44]
Under some conditions, an energy transition can be excited by "two" photons that individually would be insufficient.
This allows for higher resolution microscopy, because the sample absorbs energy only in the region where two
beams of different colors overlap significantly, which can be made much smaller than the excitation volume of a
single beam (see two-photon excitation microscopy). Moreover, these photons cause less damage to the sample,
since they are of lower energy.
Photon 65
In some cases, two energy transitions can be coupled so that, as one system absorbs a photon, another nearby system
"steals" its energy and re-emits a photon of a different frequency. This is the basis of fluorescence resonance energy
transfer, a technique that is used in molecular biology to study the interaction of suitable proteins.
Several different kinds of hardware random number generator involve the detection of single photons. In one
example, for each bit in the random sequence that is to be produced, a photon is sent to a beam-splitter. In such a
situation, there are two possible outcomes of equal probability. The actual outcome is used to determine whether the
next bit in the sequence is "0" or "1".
Recent research
Much research has been devoted to applications of photons in the field of quantum optics. Photons seem well-suited
to be elements of an extremely fast quantum computer, and the quantum entanglement of photons is a focus of
research. Nonlinear optical processes are another active research area, with topics such as two-photon absorption,
self-phase modulation, modulational instability and optical parametric oscillators. However, such processes
generally do not require the assumption of photons per se; they may often be modeled by treating atoms as nonlinear
oscillators. The nonlinear process of spontaneous parametric down conversion is often used to produce single-photon
states. Finally, photons are essential in some aspects of optical communication, especially for quantum
cryptography.[45]
Notes
[1] . An English translation is available from Wikisource.
[2] Although the 1967 Elsevier translation (http:/ / nobelprize. org/ nobel_prizes/ physics/ laureates/ 1918/ planck-lecture. html) of Planck's
Nobel Lecture interprets Planck's Lichtquant as "photon", the more literal 1922 translation by Hans Thacher Clarke and Ludwik Silberstein
The origin and development of the quantum theory (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=4UC4AAAAIAAJ), The Clarendon Press, 1922
(here (http:/ / www. readanybook. com/ ebook/ the-origin-and-development-of-the-quantum-theory-48217#downloadable)) uses
"light-quantum". No evidence is known that Planck himself used the term "photon" by 1926 (see also this note (http:/ / www. nobeliefs. com/
photon. htm)).
[3] The mass of the photon is believed to be exactly zero, based on experiment and theoretical considerations described in the article. Some
sources also refer to the relativistic mass concept, which is just the energy scaled to units of mass. For a photon with wavelength λ or energy
E, this is h/λc or E/c2. This usage for the term "mass" is no longer common in scientific literature. Further info: What is the mass of a photon?
http:/ / math. ucr. edu/ home/ baez/ physics/ ParticleAndNuclear/ photon_mass. html
[4] Role as gauge boson and polarization section 5.1 in
[5] See p.31 in
[6] See section 1.6 in
[7] Davison E. Soper, Electromagnetic radiation is made of photons (http:/ / physics. uoregon. edu/ ~soper/ Light/ photons. html), Institute of
Theoretical Science, University of Oregon
[8] This property was experimentally verified by Raman and Bhagavantam in 1931:
[9] E.g., section 1.3.3.2 in
[10] E.g., section 9.3 in
[11] E.g., Appendix XXXII in
[12] Summary Table (http:/ / pdg. lbl. gov/ 2009/ tables/ contents_tables. html)
[13] preprint (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ hep-ph/ 0306245)
[14] . An English translation (http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ etext/ 14725) is available from Project Gutenberg
[15] This article followed a presentation by Maxwell on 8 December 1864 to the Royal Society.
[16] Frequency-dependence of luminiscence p. 276f., photoelectric effect section 1.4 in
[17] The phrase "no matter how intense" refers to intensities below approximately 1013 W/cm2 at which point perturbation theory begins to break
down. In contrast, in the intense regime, which for visible light is above approximately 1014 W/cm2, the classical wave description correctly
predicts the energy acquired by electrons, called ponderomotive energy. (See also: Boreham et al. (1996). " Photon density and the
correspondence principle of electromagnetic interaction (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1996AIPC. . 369. 1234B)".) By comparison,
sunlight is only about 0.1 W/cm2.
[18] Presentation speech by Svante Arrhenius for the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, December 10, 1922. Online text (http:/ / nobelprize. org/
nobel_prizes/ physics/ laureates/ 1921/ press. html) from [nobelprize.org], The Nobel Foundation 2008. Access date 2008-12-05.
[19] Also Physikalische Zeitschrift, 18, 121–128 (1917).
[20] Also Zeitschrift für Physik, 24, 69 (1924).
Photon 66
[21] These experiments produce results that cannot be explained by any classical theory of light, since they involve anticorrelations that result
from the quantum measurement process. In 1974, the first such experiment was carried out by Clauser, who reported a violation of a classical
Cauchy–Schwarz inequality. In 1977, Kimble et al. demonstrated an analogous anti-bunching effect of photons interacting with a beam
splitter; this approach was simplified and sources of error eliminated in the photon-anticorrelation experiment of Grangier et al. (1986). This
work is reviewed and simplified further in Thorn et al. (2004). (These references are listed below under #Additional references.)
[22] E.g., p. 10f. in
[23] Section 1.4 in
[24] P. 322 in :
[25] Specifically, Born claimed to have been inspired by Einstein's never-published attempts to develop a "ghost-field" theory, in which
point-like photons are guided probabilistically by ghost fields that follow Maxwell's equations.
[26] Photon-photon-scattering section 7-3-1, renormalization chapter 8-2 in
[27] Bauer, T. H., Spital, R. D., Yennie, D. R. and Pipkin, F. M, The hadronic properties of the photon in high-energy interactions, Rev. Mod.
Phys. 50, 261–436 (1978), pages 292–293
[28] Theory of strong interactions, J. J. Sakurai, Ann. Phys., 11 (1960)
[29] T.F. Walsh and P.M. Zerwas, Two-photon processes in the parton model, Physics Letters B44 (1973) 195
[30] E.Witten, Anomalous cross-section for photon - photon scattering in gauge theories, Nuclear Physics B120 (1977) 189
[31] R. Nisius, The photon structure from deep inelastic electron photon scattering, Physics Report 332 (2000) 165
[32] Sheldon Glashow Nobel lecture (http:/ / nobelprize. org/ nobel_prizes/ physics/ laureates/ 1979/ glashow-lecture. html), delivered 8
December 1979.
[33] Abdus Salam Nobel lecture (http:/ / nobelprize. org/ nobel_prizes/ physics/ laureates/ 1979/ salam-lecture. html), delivered 8 December
1979.
[34] Steven Weinberg Nobel lecture (http:/ / nobelprize. org/ nobel_prizes/ physics/ laureates/ 1979/ weinberg-lecture. html), delivered 8
December 1979.
[35] E.g., chapter 14 in
[36] E.g., section 10.1 in
[37] Radiative correction to electron mass section 7-1-2, anomalous magnetic moments section 7-2-1, Lamb shift section 7-3-2 and hyperfine
splitting in positronium section 10-3 in
[38] E. g. sections 9.1 (gravitational contribution of photons) and 10.5 (influence of gravity on light) in
[39] Ch 4 in
[40] Polaritons section 10.10.1, Raman and Brillouin scattering section 10.11.3 in
[41] E.g., section 11-5 C in
[42] Nobel lecture given by G. Wald on December 12, 1967, online at nobelprize.org: The Molecular Basis of Visual Excitation (http:/ /
nobelprize. org/ nobel_prizes/ medicine/ laureates/ 1967/ wald-lecture. html).
[43] Photomultiplier section 1.1.10, CCDs section 1.1.8, Geiger counters section 1.3.2.1 in
[44] An example is US Patent Nr. 5212709 (http:/ / patft. uspto. gov/ netacgi/ nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1& Sect2=HITOFF& d=PALL& p=1& u=/
netahtml/ PTO/ srchnum. htm& r=1& f=G& l=50& s1=5212709. PN. & OS=PN/ 5212709& RS=PN/ 5212709).
[45] Introductory-level material on the various sub-fields of quantum optics can be found in
References
Additional references
By date of publication:
• Clauser, J.F. (1974). "Experimental distinction between the quantum and classical field-theoretic predictions for
the photoelectric effect". Physical Review D 9 (4): 853–860. Bibcode: 1974PhRvD...9..853C (http://adsabs.
harvard.edu/abs/1974PhRvD...9..853C). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.9.853 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/
PhysRevD.9.853).
• Kimble, H.J.; Dagenais, M.; Mandel, L. (1977). "Photon Anti-bunching in Resonance Fluorescence". Physical
Review Letters 39 (11): 691–695. Bibcode: 1977PhRvL..39..691K (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1977PhRvL.
.39..691K). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.39.691 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.39.691).
• Pais, A. (1982). Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein. Oxford University Press.
• Feynman, Richard (1985). QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. Princeton University Press.
ISBN 978-0-691-12575-6.
• Grangier, P.; Roger, G.; Aspect, A. (1986). "Experimental Evidence for a Photon Anticorrelation Effect on a
Beam Splitter: A New Light on Single-Photon Interferences". Europhysics Letters 1 (4): 173–179. Bibcode:
Photon 67
1986EL......1..173G (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1986EL......1..173G). doi: 10.1209/0295-5075/1/4/004

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/1/4/004).
• Lamb, W.E. (1995). "Anti-photon". Applied Physics B 60 (2–3): 77–84. Bibcode: 1995ApPhB..60...77L (http://
adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995ApPhB..60...77L). doi: 10.1007/BF01135846 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/
BF01135846).
• Special supplemental issue of Optics and Photonics News (vol. 14, October 2003) article web link (http://www.
sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.14183!/file/photon.pdf)
• Roychoudhuri, C.; Rajarshi, R. (2003). "The nature of light: what is a photon?". Optics and Photonics News
14: S1 (Supplement).
• Zajonc, A. "Light reconsidered". Optics and Photonics News 14: S2–S5 (Supplement).
• Loudon, R. "What is a photon?". Optics and Photonics News 14: S6–S11 (Supplement).
• Finkelstein, D. "What is a photon?". Optics and Photonics News 14: S12–S17 (Supplement).
• Muthukrishnan, A.; Scully, M.O.; Zubairy, M.S. "The concept of the photon—revisited". Optics and Photonics
News 14: S18–S27 (Supplement).
• Mack, H.; Schleich, W.P.. "A photon viewed from Wigner phase space". Optics and Photonics News 14:
S28–S35 (Supplement).
• Glauber, R. (2005). "One Hundred Years of Light Quanta" (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/
laureates/2005/glauber-lecture.pdf). 2005 Physics Nobel Prize Lecture.
Education with single photons:
• Thorn, J.J.; Neel, M.S.; Donato, V.W.; Bergreen, G.S.; Davies, R.E.; Beck, M. (2004). "Observing the quantum
behavior of light in an undergraduate laboratory" (http://people.whitman.edu/~beckmk/QM/grangier/
Thorn_ajp.pdf). American Journal of Physics 72 (9): 1210–1219. Bibcode: 2004AmJPh..72.1210T (http://
adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004AmJPh..72.1210T). doi: 10.1119/1.1737397 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.
1737397).
• Bronner, P.; et al., Andreas; Silberhorn, Christine; Meyn, Jan-Peter (2009). "Interactive screen experiments with
single photons" (http://www.QuantumLab.de). European Journal of Physics 30 (2): 345–353. Bibcode:
2009EJPh...30..345B (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009EJPh...30..345B). doi:
10.1088/0143-0807/30/2/014 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0143-0807/30/2/014).
Physics 68
Physics
Various examples of physical phenomena
Part of a series on
Science
• Outline
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Physics (from Greek φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), i.e. "knowledge of nature", from φύσις, physis, i.e. "nature") is the natural
science that involves the study of matter[1] and its motion through space and time, along with related concepts such
as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the
universe behaves.[2]
Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines, perhaps the oldest through its inclusion of astronomy.[3] Over the
last two millennia, physics was a part of natural philosophy along with chemistry, certain branches of mathematics,
and biology, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century, the natural sciences emerged as unique
research programs in their own right.[4] Physics intersects with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as
biophysics and quantum chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics often
explain the fundamental mechanisms of other sciences, while opening new avenues of research in areas such as
mathematics and philosophy.
Physics also makes significant contributions through advances in new technologies that arise from theoretical
breakthroughs. For example, advances in the understanding of electromagnetism or nuclear physics led directly to
the development of new products which have dramatically transformed modern-day society, such as television,
computers, domestic appliances, and nuclear weapons; advances in thermodynamics led to the development of
industrialization; and advances in mechanics inspired the development of calculus.
Physics 69
History
Natural philosophy has its origins in Greece during the Archaic period, (650
BCE – 480 BCE), when Pre-Socratic philosophers like Thales rejected
non-naturalistic explanations for natural phenomena and proclaimed that every
event had a natural cause.[5] They proposed ideas verified by reason and
observation and many of their hypotheses proved successful in experiment, for
example atomism.
Classical physics became a separate science when early modern Europeans used
these experimental and quantitative methods to discover what are now
considered to be the laws of physics.[6] Kepler, Galileo and more specifically
Newton discovered and unified the different laws of motion.[7] During the
industrial revolution, as energy needs increased, so did research, which led to the
Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727)
discovery of new laws in thermodynamics, chemistry and electromagnetics.
Modern physics started with the works of Max Planck in quantum theory and
Einstein in relativity, and continued in quantum mechanics pioneered by
Heisenberg, Schrödinger and Paul Dirac.
Philosophy
In many ways, physics stems from ancient Greek philosophy. From Thales' first
attempt to characterize matter, to Democritus' deduction that matter ought to
reduce to an invariant state, the Ptolemaic astronomy of a crystalline firmament,
and Aristotle's book Physics (an early book on physics, which attempted to
analyze and define motion from a philosophical point of view), various Greek
philosophers advanced their own theories of nature. Physics was known as
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) natural philosophy until the late 18th century.
By the 19th century physics was realized as a discipline distinct from philosophy
and the other sciences. Physics, as with the rest of science, relies on philosophy of science to give an adequate
[8]
description of the scientific method. The scientific method employs a priori reasoning as well as a posteriori
reasoning and the use of Bayesian inference to measure the validity of a given theory.[9]
The development of physics has answered many questions of early philosophers, but has also raised new questions.
Study of the philosophical issues surrounding physics, the philosophy of physics, involves issues such as the nature
of space and time, determinism, and metaphysical outlooks such as empiricism, naturalism and realism.[10]
Many physicists have written about the philosophical implications of their work, for instance Laplace, who
championed causal determinism,[11] and Erwin Schrödinger, who wrote on quantum mechanics.[12] The
mathematical physicist Roger Penrose has been called a Platonist by Stephen Hawking,[13] a view Penrose discusses
in his book, The Road to Reality.[14] Hawking refers to himself as an "unashamed reductionist" and takes issue with
Penrose's views.
Physics 70
Core theories
Though physics deals with a wide variety of systems, certain theories are used by all physicists. Each of these
theories were experimentally tested numerous times and found correct as an approximation of nature (within a
certain domain of validity). For instance, the theory of classical mechanics accurately describes the motion of
objects, provided they are much larger than atoms and moving at much less than the speed of light. These theories
continue to be areas of active research, and a remarkable aspect of classical mechanics known as chaos was
discovered in the 20th century, three centuries after the original formulation of classical mechanics by Isaac Newton
(1642–1727).
These central theories are important tools for research into more specialized topics, and any physicist, regardless of
his or her specialization, is expected to be literate in them. These include classical mechanics, quantum mechanics,
thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, electromagnetism, and special relativity.
Classical physics
Classical physics includes the traditional branches and topics that were
recognized and well-developed before the beginning of the 20th
century—classical mechanics, acoustics, optics, thermodynamics, and
electromagnetism. Classical mechanics is concerned with bodies acted
on by forces and bodies in motion and may be divided into statics
(study of the forces on a body or bodies at rest), kinematics (study of
motion without regard to its causes), and dynamics (study of motion
and the forces that affect it); mechanics may also be divided into solid
mechanics and fluid mechanics (known together as continuum
mechanics), the latter including such branches as hydrostatics,
hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, and pneumatics. Acoustics is the study
of how sound is produced, controlled, transmitted and received.
Important modern branches of acoustics include ultrasonics, the study
of sound waves of very high frequency beyond the range of human
hearing; bioacoustics the physics of animal calls and hearing, and
electroacoustics, the manipulation of audible sound waves using
electronics. Optics, the study of light, is concerned not only with
visible light but also with infrared and ultraviolet radiation, which
exhibit all of the phenomena of visible light except visibility, e.g., Classical physics implemented in an acoustic
reflection, refraction, interference, diffraction, dispersion, and engineering model of sound reflecting from an
polarization of light. Heat is a form of energy, the internal energy acoustic diffuser
possessed by the particles of which a substance is composed;

thermodynamics deals with the relationships between heat and other forms of energy. Electricity and magnetism
have been studied as a single branch of physics since the intimate connection between them was discovered in the
early 19th century; an electric current gives rise to a magnetic field and a changing magnetic field induces an electric
current. Electrostatics deals with electric charges at rest, electrodynamics with moving charges, and magnetostatics
with magnetic poles at rest.
Physics 71
Modern physics
Modern
physics
Classical physics is generally concerned with matter and energy on the

normal scale of observation, while much of modern physics is
concerned with the behavior of matter and energy under extreme
conditions or on a very large or very small scale. For example, atomic
and nuclear physics studies matter on the smallest scale at which
chemical elements can be identified. The physics of elementary
particles is on an even smaller scale, as it is concerned with the most
basic units of matter; this branch of physics is also known as
high-energy physics because of the extremely high energies necessary
Solvay Conference of 1927, with prominent
physicists such as Albert Einstein, Werner to produce many types of particles in large particle accelerators. On
Heisenberg, Max Planck, Hendrik Lorentz, Niels this scale, ordinary, commonsense notions of space, time, matter, and
Bohr, Marie Curie, Erwin Schrödinger and Paul energy are no longer valid.
Dirac.
The two chief theories of modern physics present a different picture of
the concepts of space, time, and matter from that presented by classical physics. Quantum theory is concerned with
the discrete, rather than continuous, nature of many phenomena at the atomic and subatomic level, and with the
complementary aspects of particles and waves in the description of such phenomena. The theory of relativity is
concerned with the description of phenomena that take place in a frame of reference that is in motion with respect to
an observer; the special theory of relativity is concerned with relative uniform motion in a straight line and the
general theory of relativity with accelerated motion and its connection with gravitation. Both quantum theory and the
theory of relativity find applications in all areas of modern physics.
Difference between classical and modern physics

While physics aims to discover
universal laws, its theories lie in
explicit domains of applicability.
Loosely speaking, the laws of classical
physics accurately describe systems
whose important length scales are
greater than the atomic scale and
whose motions are much slower than
the speed of light. Outside of this
The basic domains of physics
domain, observations do not match
their predictions. Albert Einstein
contributed the framework of special relativity, which replaced notions of absolute time and space with spacetime
and allowed an accurate description of systems whose components have speeds approaching the speed of light. Max
Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, and others introduced quantum mechanics, a probabilistic notion of particles and
interactions that allowed an accurate description of atomic and subatomic scales. Later, quantum field theory unified
Physics 72
quantum mechanics and special relativity. General relativity allowed for a dynamical, curved spacetime, with which
highly massive systems and the large-scale structure of the universe can be well-described. General relativity has not
yet been unified with the other fundamental descriptions; several candidate theories of quantum gravity are being
developed.
Relation to other fields
Prerequisites
Mathematics is the language used for compact description of the order
in nature, especially the laws of physics. This was noted and advocated
by Pythagoras, Plato, Galileo,[15] and Newton.
Physics theories use mathematics to obtain order and provide precise
formulas, precise or estimated solutions, quantitative results and
predictions. Experiment results in physics are numerical
measurements. Technologies based on mathematics, like computation This parabola-shaped lava flow illustrates the
application of mathematics in physics—in this
have made computational physics an active area of research.
case, Galileo's law of falling bodies.
Mathematics and ontology

are used in physics. Physics
is used in chemistry and
cosmology.
Physics 73
Ontology is a prerequisite for physics, but not for mathematics. It

means physics is ultimately concerned with descriptions of the real
world, while mathematics is concerned with abstract patterns, even
beyond the real world. Thus physics statements are synthetic, while
math statements are analytic. Mathematics contains hypotheses, while
physics contains theories. Mathematics statements have to be only
logically true, while predictions of physics statements must match
observed and experimental data.
The distinction is clear-cut, but not always obvious. For example, The distinction between mathematics and physics
mathematical physics is the application of mathematics in physics. Its is clear-cut, but not always obvious, especially in
[16] mathematical physics.
methods are mathematical, but its subject is physical. The problems
in this field start with a "math model of a physical situation" and a
"math description of a physical law". Every math statement used for solution has a hard-to-find physical meaning.
The final mathematical solution has an easier-to-find meaning, because it is what the solver is looking for.
Physics is a branch of fundamental science, not practical science.[17] Physics is also called "the fundamental science"
because the subject of study of all branches of natural science like chemistry, astronomy, geology and biology are
constrained by laws of physics. For example, chemistry studies properties, structures, and reactions of matter
(chemistry's focus on the atomic scale distinguishes it from physics). Structures are formed because particles exert
electrical forces on each other, properties include physical characteristics of given substances, and reactions are
bound by laws of physics, like conservation of energy, mass and charge.
Physics is applied in industries like engineering and medicine.
Application and influence

Applied physics is a general term for physics research which is intended for a
particular use. An applied physics curriculum usually contains a few classes
in an applied discipline, like geology or electrical engineering. It usually
differs from engineering in that an applied physicist may not be designing
something in particular, but rather is using physics or conducting physics
research with the aim of developing new technologies or solving a problem.
The approach is similar to that of applied mathematics. Applied physicists can

also be interested in the use of physics for scientific research. For instance, Archimedes' screw, a simple machine for
lifting
people working on accelerator physics might seek to build better particle
detectors for research in theoretical physics.
Physics is used heavily in engineering. For example, statics, a subfield of mechanics, is used in the building of
bridges and other static structures. The understanding and use of acoustics results in sound control and better concert
halls; similarly, the use of optics creates better optical devices. An understanding of physics makes for more realistic
flight simulators, video games, and movies, and is often critical in forensic investigations.
With the standard consensus that the laws of physics are universal and do not change with time, physics can be used
to study things that would ordinarily be mired in uncertainty. For example, in the study of the origin of the earth, one
can reasonably model earth's mass, temperature, and rate of rotation, as a
Physics 74
function of time allowing one to extrapolate forward and backward in time

and so predict prior and future conditions. It also allows for simulations in
engineering which drastically speed up the development of a new technology.
But there is also considerable interdisciplinarity in the physicist's methods
and so many other important fields are influenced by physics, e.g. the fields
of econophysics and sociophysics.
The application of physical laws in lifting

liquids
Research
Scientific method
Physicists use the scientific method to test the validity of a physical theory, using a methodical approach to compare
the implications of the theory in question with the associated conclusions drawn from experiments and observations
conducted to test it. Experiments and observations are collected and compared with the predictions and hypotheses
made by a theory, thus aiding in the determination or the validity/invalidity of the theory.
A scientific law is a concise verbal or mathematical statement of a relation that expresses a fundamental principle of
a theory, like Newton's law of universal gravitation.
Theory and experiment

Theorists seek to develop mathematical models that both agree with
existing experiments and successfully predict future experimental
results, while experimentalists devise and perform experiments to test
theoretical predictions and explore new phenomena. Although theory
and experiment are developed separately, they are strongly dependent
upon each other. Progress in physics frequently comes about when
experimentalists make a discovery that existing theories cannot
explain, or when new theories generate experimentally testable
predictions, which inspire new experiments.
Physicists who work at the interplay of theory and experiment are

called phenomenologists. Phenomenologists look at the complex
phenomena observed in experiment and work to relate them to The astronaut and Earth are both in free-fall
fundamental theory.
Theoretical physics has historically taken inspiration from philosophy; electromagnetism was unified this way.[18]
Beyond the known
Physics 75
universe, the field of theoretical physics also deals with hypothetical

issues,[19] such as parallel universes, a multiverse, and higher
dimensions. Theorists invoke these ideas in hopes of solving particular
problems with existing theories. They then explore the consequences
of these ideas and work toward making testable predictions.
Experimental physics expands, and is expanded by, engineering and
technology. Experimental physicists involved in basic research design
and perform experiments with equipment such as particle accelerators
and lasers, whereas those involved in applied research often work in
industry, developing technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging
Lightning is an electric current (MRI) and transistors. Feynman has noted that experimentalists may
seek areas which are not well-explored by theorists.[20]
Scope and aims

Physics covers a wide range of phenomena, from elementary particles
(such as quarks, neutrinos and electrons) to the largest superclusters of
galaxies. Included in these phenomena are the most basic objects
composing all other things. Therefore physics is sometimes called the
"fundamental science".[] Physics aims to describe the various
phenomena that occur in nature in terms of simpler phenomena. Thus,
physics aims to both connect the things observable to humans to root
causes, and then connect these causes together.
For example, the ancient Chinese observed that certain rocks

(lodestone) were attracted to one another by some invisible force. This
Physics involves modeling the natural world with
effect was later called magnetism, and was first rigorously studied in
theory, usually quantitative. Here, the path of a
particle is modeled with the mathematics of
the 17th century. A little earlier than the Chinese, the ancient Greeks
calculus to explain its behavior: the purview of knew of other objects such as amber, that when rubbed with fur would
the branch of physics known as mechanics. cause a similar invisible attraction between the two. This was also first
studied rigorously in the 17th century, and came to be called
electricity. Thus, physics had come to understand two observations of nature in terms of some root cause (electricity
and magnetism). However, further work in the 19th century revealed that these two forces were just two different
aspects of one force—electromagnetism. This process of "unifying" forces continues today, and electromagnetism
and the weak nuclear force are now considered to be two aspects of the electroweak interaction. Physics hopes to
find an ultimate reason (Theory of Everything) for why nature is as it is (see section Current research below for
more information).
Research fields
Contemporary research in physics can be broadly divided into condensed matter physics; atomic, molecular, and
optical physics; particle physics; astrophysics; geophysics and biophysics. Some physics departments also support
research in Physics education.
Since the 20th century, the individual fields of physics have become increasingly specialized, and today most
physicists work in a single field for their entire careers. "Universalists" such as Albert Einstein (1879–1955) and Lev
Landau (1908–1968), who worked in multiple fields of physics, are now very rare.[21]
Physics 76
Condensed matter
Condensed matter physics is the field

of physics that deals with the
macroscopic physical properties of
matter. In particular, it is concerned
with the "condensed" phases that
appear whenever the number of
particles in a system is extremely large
and the interactions between them are
strong.
The most familiar examples of

condensed phases are solids and
liquids, which arise from the bonding
by way of the electromagnetic force
between atoms. More exotic condensed Velocity-distribution data of a gas of rubidium atoms, confirming the discovery of a new
phase of matter, the Bose–Einstein condensate
phases include the superfluid and the
Bose–Einstein condensate found in
certain atomic systems at very low temperature, the superconducting phase exhibited by conduction electrons in
certain materials, and the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases of spins on atomic lattices.
Condensed matter physics is by far the largest field of contemporary physics. Historically, condensed matter physics
grew out of solid-state physics, which is now considered one of its main subfields. The term condensed matter
physics was apparently coined by Philip Anderson when he renamed his research group—previously solid-state
theory—in 1967. In 1978, the Division of Solid State Physics of the American Physical Society was renamed as the
Division of Condensed Matter Physics. Condensed matter physics has a large overlap with chemistry, materials
science, nanotechnology and engineering.
Atomic, molecular, and optical physics

Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO) is the study of matter–matter and light–matter interactions on the
scale of single atoms and molecules. The three areas are grouped together because of their interrelationships, the
similarity of methods used, and the commonality of the energy scales that are relevant. All three areas include both
classical, semi-classical and quantum treatments; they can treat their subject from a microscopic view (in contrast to
a macroscopic view).
Atomic physics studies the electron shells of atoms. Current research focuses on activities in quantum control,
cooling and trapping of atoms and ions,[citation needed] low-temperature collision dynamics and the effects of electron
correlation on structure and dynamics. Atomic physics is influenced by the nucleus (see, e.g., hyperfine splitting),
but intra-nuclear phenomena such as fission and fusion are considered part of high-energy physics.
Molecular physics focuses on multi-atomic structures and their internal and external interactions with matter and
light. Optical physics is distinct from optics in that it tends to focus not on the control of classical light fields by
macroscopic objects, but on the fundamental properties of optical fields and their interactions with matter in the
microscopic realm.
Physics 77
High-energy physics (particle physics) and nuclear physics
Particle physics is the study of the elementary constituents of matter

and energy, and the interactions between them. In addition, particle
physicists design and develop the high energy accelerators, detectors,
and computer programs necessary for this research. The field is also
called "high-energy physics" because many elementary particles do not
occur naturally, but are created only during high-energy collisions of
other particles.
Currently, the interactions of elementary particles and fields are

described by the Standard Model. The model accounts for the 12
known particles of matter (quarks and leptons) that interact via the
strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental forces. Dynamics are A simulated event in the CMS detector of the
described in terms of matter particles exchanging gauge bosons Large Hadron Collider, featuring a possible
appearance of the Higgs boson.
(gluons, W and Z bosons, and photons, respectively). The Standard
Model also predicts a particle known as the Higgs boson, the existence
of which has not yet been verified. In July 2012 CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics, announced the
detection of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson.
Nuclear Physics is the field of physics that studies the constituents and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most
commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but
the research has provided application in many fields, including those in nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance
imaging, ion implantation in materials engineering, and radiocarbon dating in geology and archaeology.
Astrophysics
Astrophysics and astronomy are the application of the theories and

methods of physics to the study of stellar structure, stellar evolution,
the origin of the solar system, and related problems of cosmology.
Because astrophysics is a broad subject, astrophysicists typically apply
many disciplines of physics, including mechanics, electromagnetism,
statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity,
nuclear and particle physics, and atomic and molecular physics.
The discovery by Karl Jansky in 1931 that radio signals were emitted
by celestial bodies initiated the science of radio astronomy. Most
recently, the frontiers of astronomy have been expanded by space
exploration. Perturbations and interference from the earth's atmosphere
The deepest visible-light image of the universe, make space-based observations necessary for infrared, ultraviolet,
the Hubble Ultra Deep Field gamma-ray, and X-ray astronomy.
Physical cosmology is the study of the formation and evolution of the

universe on its largest scales. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity plays a central role in all modern cosmological
theories. In the early 20th century, Hubble's discovery that the universe was expanding, as shown by the Hubble
diagram, prompted rival explanations known as the steady state universe and the Big Bang.
The Big Bang was confirmed by the success of Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the discovery of the cosmic
microwave background in 1964. The Big Bang model rests on two theoretical pillars: Albert Einstein's general
relativity and the cosmological principle. Cosmologists have recently established the ΛCDM model of the evolution
of the universe, which includes cosmic inflation, dark energy and dark matter.
Physics 78
Numerous possibilities and discoveries are anticipated to emerge from new data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space
Telescope over the upcoming decade and vastly revise or clarify existing models of the universe.[22] In particular, the
potential for a tremendous discovery surrounding dark matter is possible over the next several years. Fermi will
search for evidence that dark matter is composed of weakly interacting massive particles, complementing similar
experiments with the Large Hadron Collider and other underground detectors.
IBEX is already yielding new astrophysical discoveries: "No one knows what is creating the ENA (energetic neutral
atoms) ribbon" along the termination shock of the solar wind, "but everyone agrees that it means the textbook picture
of the heliosphere — in which the solar system's enveloping pocket filled with the solar wind's charged particles is
plowing through the onrushing 'galactic wind' of the interstellar medium in the shape of a comet — is wrong."
Current research
Research in physics is continually progressing on a large number of
fronts.
In condensed matter physics, an important unsolved theoretical
problem is that of high-temperature superconductivity. Many
condensed matter experiments are aiming to fabricate workable
spintronics and quantum computers.
In particle physics, the first pieces of experimental evidence for
physics beyond the Standard Model have begun to appear. Foremost
among these are indications that neutrinos have non-zero mass. These Feynman diagram signed by R.P. Feynman
experimental results appear to have solved the long-standing solar

neutrino problem, and the physics of massive neutrinos remains an area
of active theoretical and experimental research. Particle accelerators
have begun probing energy scales in the TeV range, in which
experimentalists are hoping to find evidence for the Higgs boson and
supersymmetric particles.[23]
Theoretical attempts to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity

into a single theory of quantum gravity, a program ongoing for over
half a century, have not yet been decisively resolved. The current
leading candidates are M-theory, superstring theory and loop quantum A typical event described by physics: a magnet
gravity. levitating above a superconductor demonstrates
the Meissner effect.
Many astronomical and cosmological phenomena have yet to be
satisfactorily explained, including the existence of ultra-high energy
cosmic rays, the baryon asymmetry, the acceleration of the universe and the anomalous rotation rates of galaxies.
Although much progress has been made in high-energy, quantum, and astronomical physics, many everyday
phenomena involving complexity, chaos, or turbulence are still poorly understood.[citation needed] Complex problems
that seem like they could be solved by a clever application of dynamics and mechanics remain unsolved; examples
include the formation of sandpiles, nodes in trickling water, the shape of water droplets, mechanisms of surface
tension catastrophes, and self-sorting in shaken heterogeneous collections.[citation needed]
These complex phenomena have received growing attention since the 1970s for several reasons, including the
availability of modern mathematical methods and computers, which enabled complex systems to be modeled in new
ways. Complex physics has become part of increasingly interdisciplinary research, as exemplified by the study of
turbulence in aerodynamics and the observation of pattern formation in biological systems. In 1932, Horace Lamb
said:
Physics 79
I am an old man now, and when I die and go to heaven there are two matters on which I hope for
enlightenment. One is quantum electrodynamics, and the other is the turbulent motion of fluids. And
about the former I am rather optimistic.
References
[1] Richard Feynman begins his Lectures with the atomic hypothesis, as his most compact statement of all scientific knowledge: "If, in some
cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generations ..., what statement would
contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is ... that all things are made up of atoms – little particles that move around in
perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. ..."
[2] Note: The term 'universe' is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and
momentum, and the physical laws and constants that govern them. However, the term 'universe' may also be used in slightly different
contextual senses, denoting concepts such as the cosmos or the philosophical world.
[3] The earliest civilizations dating back to beyond 3000 BCE, such as the Sumerians, Ancient Egyptians, and the Indus Valley Civilization, all
had a predictive knowledge and a very basic understanding of the motions of the Sun, Moon, and stars.
[4] Francis Bacon's 1620 Novum Organum was critical in the development of scientific method.
[5] Singer, C. A Short History of Science to the 19th century. Streeter Press, 2008. p. 35.
[6] Weidhorn Introduces Galili as the "father of modern Physics"
[7] Guicciardini, Niccolò (1999), Reading the Principia: The Debate on Newton's Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736, New
York: Cambridge University Press.
[8] See Chapter 1 for a discussion on the necessity of philosophy of science.
[9] Peter Godfrey-Smith (2003), Chapter 14 "Bayesianism and Modern Theories of Evidence" Theory and Reality: an introduction to the
philosophy of science ISBN 0-226-30063-3
[10] Peter Godfrey-Smith (2003), Chapter 15 "Empiricism, Naturalism, and Scientific Realism?" Theory and Reality: an introduction to the
philosophy of science ISBN 0-226-30063-3
[11] See Laplace, Pierre Simon, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, translated from the 6th French edition by Frederick Wilson Truscott and
Frederick Lincoln Emory, Dover Publications (New York, 1951)
[12] See "The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" Ox Bow Press (1995) ISBN 1-881987-09-4. and "My View of the World" Ox Bow Press
(1983) ISBN 0-918024-30-7.
[13] Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose (1996), The Nature of Space and Time ISBN 0-691-05084-8 p.4 "I think that Roger is a Platonist at
heart but he must answer for himself."
[14] Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality ISBN 0-679-45443-8
[15] "Philosophy is written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes. I mean the universe, but we cannot understand it if we do not first
learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. This book is written in the mathematical language, and the symbols are
triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word of it, and without
which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth." – Galileo (1623), The Assayer, as quoted by G. Toraldo Di Francia (1976), The
Investigation of the Physical World ISBN 0-521-29925-X p.10
[16] The application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of mathematical methods suitable for such applications and for
the formulation of physical theories." Definition from the Journal of Mathematical Physics. http:/ / jmp. aip. org/ jmp/ staff. jsp
[17] American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science. 1917. Page 645
[18] See, for example, the influence of Kant and Ritter on Oersted.
[19] Concepts which are denoted hypothetical can change with time. For example, the atom of nineteenth century physics was denigrated by
some, including Ernst Mach's critique of Ludwig Boltzmann's formulation of statistical mechanics. By the end of World War II, the atom was
no longer deemed hypothetical.
[20] p.157: "In fact experimenters have a certain individual character. They ... very often do their experiments in a region in which people know
the theorist has not made any guesses. "
[21] Yet, universalism is encouraged in the culture of physics. For example, the World Wide Web, which was innovated at CERN by Tim
Berners-Lee, was created in service to the computer infrastructure of CERN, and was/is intended for use by physicists worldwide. The same
might be said for arXiv.org
[22] See also Nasa - Fermi Science (http:/ / www. nasa. gov/ mission_pages/ GLAST/ science/ index. html) and NASA - Scientists Predict Major
Discoveries for GLAST (http:/ / www. nasa. gov/ mission_pages/ GLAST/ science/ unidentified_sources. html).
[23] 584 co-authors "Direct observation of the strange 'b' baryon UNIQ-math-0-19b700d988ba3161-QINU " Fermilab-Pub-07/196-E, 12 June
2007 http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ 0706. 1690v2 finds a mass of 5.774 GeV for the UNIQ-math-1-19b700d988ba3161-QINU
Physics 80
External links
General
• Encyclopedia of Physics (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Encyclopedia_of_physics) at Scholarpedia
• de Haas, Paul, "Historic Papers in Physics (20th Century)" (http://home.tiscali.nl/physis/HistoricPaper/
)Wikipedia:Link rot
• PhysicsCentral (http://www.physicscentral.com/) – Web portal run by the American Physical Society (http://
www.aps.org/)
• Physics.org (http://www.physics.org/) – Web portal run by the Institute of Physics (http://www.iop.org/)
• The Skeptic's Guide to Physics (http://musr.physics.ubc.ca/~jess/hr/skept/)
• Usenet Physics FAQ (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/) – A FAQ compiled by sci.physics and other
physics newsgroups
• Website of the Nobel Prize in physics (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/)
• World of Physics (http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/) An online encyclopedic dictionary of physics
• Nature: Physics (http://www.nature.com/naturephysics)
• Physics (http://physics.aps.org/) announced 17 July 2008 by the American Physical Society
• Physics/Publications (http://www.dmoz.org//Science/Physics/Publications//) at the Open Directory Project
• Physicsworld.com (http://physicsworld.com/) – News website from Institute of Physics Publishing (http://
publishing.iop.org/)
• Physics Central (http://physlib.com/) – includes articles on astronomy, particle physics, and mathematics.
• The Vega Science Trust (http://www.vega.org.uk/) – science videos, including physics
• Video: Physics "Lightning" Tour with Justin Morgan (http://www.archive.org/details/
JustinMorganPhysicsLightningTour/)
• 52-part video course: The Mechanical Universe...and Beyond (http://www.learner.org/resources/series42.
html) Note: also available at - Introduction Physics (https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=01) at Google
Videos (Adobe Flash video)
• HyperPhysics website (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/hframe.html) – HyperPhysics, a physics
and astronomy mind-map from Georgia State University
Organizations
• AIP.org (http://www.aip.org/index.html) – Website of the American Institute of Physics
• APS.org (http://www.aps.org/) – Website of the American Physical Society
• IOP.org (http://www.iop.org/) – Website of the Institute of Physics
• PlanetPhysics.org (http://planetphysics.org/)
• Royal Society (http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/) – Although not exclusively a physics institution, it has a strong
history of physics
• SPS National (http://www.spsnational.org/) – Website of the Society of Physics Students
Quantum mechanics
Quantum
mechanics
Introduction
Glossary · History
Quantum mechanics (QM – also known as quantum physics, or quantum theory) is a branch of physics which
deals with physical phenomena at microscopic scales, where the action is on the order of the Planck constant. It
departs from classical mechanics primarily at the quantum realm of atomic and subatomic length scales. Quantum
mechanics provides a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and
interactions of energy and matter. It is the non-relativistic limit of Quantum Field Theory (QFT), a theory that was
developed later that combined Quantum Mechanics with Relativity.
In advanced topics of quantum mechanics, some of these behaviors are macroscopic (see macroscopic quantum
phenomena) and emerge at only extreme (i.e., very low or very high) energies or temperatures (such as in the use of
superconducting magnets). The name quantum mechanics derives from the observation that some physical quantities
can change only in discrete amounts (Latin quanta), and not in a continuous (cf. analog) way. For example, the
angular momentum of an electron bound to an atom or molecule is quantized.[1] In the context of quantum
mechanics, the wave–particle duality of energy and matter and the uncertainty principle provide a unified view of
the behavior of photons, electrons, and other atomic-scale objects.
The mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics are abstract. A mathematical function known as the
wavefunction provides information about the probability amplitude of position, momentum, and other physical
properties of a particle. Mathematical manipulations of the wavefunction usually involve the bra-ket notation, which
requires an understanding of complex numbers and linear functionals. The wavefunction treats the object as a
quantum harmonic oscillator, and the mathematics is akin to that describing acoustic resonance. Many of the results
of quantum mechanics are not easily visualized in terms of classical mechanics—for instance, the ground state in a
quantum mechanical model is a non-zero energy state that is the lowest permitted energy state of a system, as
opposed to a more "traditional" system that is thought of as simply being at rest, with zero kinetic energy. Instead of
a traditional static, unchanging zero state, quantum mechanics allows for far more dynamic, chaotic possibilities,
according to John Wheeler.
The earliest versions of quantum mechanics were formulated in the first decade of the 20th century. At around the
same time, the atomic theory and the corpuscular theory of light (as updated by Einstein) first came to be widely
accepted as scientific fact; these latter theories can be viewed as quantum theories of matter and electromagnetic
radiation, respectively. Early quantum theory was significantly reformulated in the mid-1920s by Werner
Heisenberg, Max Born and Pascual Jordan, who created matrix mechanics; Louis de Broglie and Erwin Schrödinger
(Wave Mechanics); and Wolfgang Pauli and Satyendra Nath Bose (statistics of subatomic particles). Moreover, the
Copenhagen interpretation of Niels Bohr became widely accepted. By 1930, quantum mechanics had been further
unified and formalized by the work of David Hilbert, Paul Dirac and John von Neumann, with a greater emphasis
placed on measurement in quantum mechanics, the statistical nature of our knowledge of reality, and philosophical
speculation about the role of the observer. Quantum mechanics has since branched out into almost every aspect of
20th century physics and other disciplines, such as quantum chemistry, quantum electronics, quantum optics, and
quantum information science. Much 19th century physics has been re-evaluated as the "classical limit" of quantum
mechanics, and its more advanced developments in terms of quantum field theory, string theory, and speculative
quantum gravity theories.
History
Modern
physics
Scientific inquiry into the wave nature of light began in the 17th and 18th centuries when scientists such as Robert
Hooke, Christian Huygens and Leonhard Euler proposed a wave theory of light based on experimental
observations.[2] In 1803, Thomas Young, an English polymath, performed the famous double-slit experiment that he
later described in a paper entitled "On the nature of light and colours". This experiment played a major role in the
general acceptance of the wave theory of light.
In 1838, with the discovery of cathode rays by Michael Faraday, these studies were followed by the 1859 statement
of the black-body radiation problem by Gustav Kirchhoff, the 1877 suggestion by Ludwig Boltzmann that the energy
states of a physical system can be discrete, and the 1900 quantum hypothesis of Max Planck. Planck's hypothesis that
energy is radiated and absorbed in discrete "quanta" (or "energy elements") precisely matched the observed patterns
of black-body radiation.
In 1896, Wilhelm Wien empirically determined a distribution law of black-body radiation, known as Wien's law in
his honor. Ludwig Boltzmann independently arrived at this result by considerations of Maxwell's equations.
However, it was valid only at high frequencies, and underestimated the radiance at low frequencies. Later, Max
Planck corrected this model using Boltzmann statistical interpretation of thermodynamics and proposed what is now
called Planck's law, which led to the development of quantum mechanics.
Among the first to study quantum phenomena in nature were Arthur Compton, C.V. Raman, Pieter Zeeman, each of
whom has a quantum effect named after him. Robert A. Millikan studied the Photoelectric effect experimentally and
Albert Einstein developed a theory for it. At the same time Niels Bohr developed his theory of the atomic structure
which was later confirmed by the experiments of Henry Moseley. In 1913, Peter Debye extended Niels Bohr's theory
of atomic structure, introducing elliptical orbits, a concept also introduced by Arnold Sommerfeld.[3] This phase is
known as Old quantum theory.
According to Planck, each energy element E is proportional to its frequency ν:
where h is Planck's constant. Planck (cautiously) insisted that this was simply an
aspect of the processes of absorption and emission of radiation and had nothing
to do with the physical reality of the radiation itself. In fact, he considered his
quantum hypothesis a mathematical trick to get the right answer rather than a
sizeable discovery. However, in 1905 Albert Einstein interpreted Planck's
quantum hypothesis realistically and used it to explain the photoelectric effect, in
which shining light on certain materials can eject electrons from the material.
Planck is considered the father of the

Quantum Theory
The foundations of quantum mechanics were

established during the first half of the 20th century
by Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg,
Louis de Broglie, Arthur Compton, Albert Einstein,
Erwin Schrödinger, Max Born, John von Neumann,
Paul Dirac, Enrico Fermi, Wolfgang Pauli, Max von
Laue, Freeman Dyson, David Hilbert, Wilhelm
Wien, Satyendra Nath Bose, Arnold Sommerfeld and
others. In the mid-1920s, developments in quantum
mechanics led to its becoming the standard
formulation for atomic physics. In the summer of
1925, Bohr and Heisenberg published results that
The 1927 Solvay Conference in Brussels. closed the "Old Quantum Theory". Out of deference
to their particle-like behavior in certain processes and
measurements, light quanta came to be called photons (1926). From Einstein's simple postulation was born a flurry
of debating, theorizing, and testing. Thus the entire field of quantum physics emerged, leading to its wider
acceptance at the Fifth Solvay Conference in 1927.
The other exemplar that led to quantum mechanics was the study of electromagnetic waves, such as visible and
ultraviolet light. When it was found in 1900 by Max Planck that the energy of waves could be described as
consisting of small packets or "quanta", Albert Einstein further developed this idea to show that an electromagnetic
wave such as light could also be described as a particle (later called the photon) with a discrete quantum of energy
that was dependent on its frequency.[4] As a matter of fact, Einstein was able to use the photon theory of light to
explain the photoelectric effect, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1921. This led to a theory of unity between
subatomic particles and electromagnetic waves, called wave–particle duality, in which particles and waves were
neither one nor the other, but had certain properties of both. Thus coined the term wave-particle duality.
While quantum mechanics traditionally described the world of the very small, it is also needed to explain certain
recently investigated macroscopic systems such as superconductors, superfluids, and larger organic molecules.
The word quantum derives from the Latin, meaning "how great" or "how much". In quantum mechanics, it refers to a
discrete unit that quantum theory assigns to certain physical quantities, such as the energy of an atom at rest (see
Figure 1). The discovery that particles are discrete packets of energy with wave-like properties led to the branch of
physics dealing with atomic and sub-atomic systems which is today called quantum mechanics. It is the underlying
mathematical framework of many fields of physics and chemistry, including condensed matter physics, solid-state
physics, atomic physics, molecular physics, computational physics, computational chemistry, quantum chemistry,
particle physics, nuclear chemistry, and nuclear physics.[5] Some fundamental aspects of the theory are still actively
studied.[6]
Quantum mechanics is essential to understanding the behavior of systems at atomic length scales and smaller. If
classical mechanics alone governed the workings of an atom, electrons could not really "orbit" the nucleus. Since
bodies in circular motion are accelerating, electrons must emit radiation, losing energy and eventually colliding with
the nucleus in the process. This clearly contradicts the existence of stable atoms. However, in the natural world,
electrons normally remain in an uncertain, non-deterministic, "smeared", probabilistic, wave–particle wavefunction
orbital path around (or through) the nucleus, defying the traditional assumptions of classical mechanics and
electromagnetism.
Quantum mechanics was initially developed to provide a better explanation and description of the atom, especially
the differences in the spectra of light emitted by different isotopes of the same element, as well as subatomic
particles. In short, the quantum-mechanical atomic model has succeeded spectacularly in the realm where classical
mechanics and electromagnetism falter.
Broadly speaking, quantum mechanics incorporates four classes of phenomena for which classical physics cannot
account:
• The quantization of certain physical properties
• Wave–particle duality
• The uncertainty principle
• Quantum entanglement.
Mathematical formulations
In the mathematically rigorous formulation of quantum mechanics developed by Paul Dirac,[7] David Hilbert,[8] John
von Neumann,[9] and Hermann Weyl[10] the possible states of a quantum mechanical system are represented by unit
vectors (called "state vectors"). Formally, these reside in a complex separable Hilbert space - variously called the
"state space" or the "associated Hilbert space" of the system - that is well defined up to a complex number of norm 1
(the phase factor). In other words, the possible states are points in the projective space of a Hilbert space, usually
called the complex projective space. The exact nature of this Hilbert space is dependent on the system - for example,
the state space for position and momentum states is the space of square-integrable functions, while the state space for
the spin of a single proton is just the product of two complex planes. Each observable is represented by a maximally
Hermitian (precisely: by a self-adjoint) linear operator acting on the state space. Each eigenstate of an observable
corresponds to an eigenvector of the operator, and the associated eigenvalue corresponds to the value of the
observable in that eigenstate. If the operator's spectrum is discrete, the observable can attain only those discrete
eigenvalues.
In the formalism of quantum mechanics, the state of a system at a given time is described by a complex wave
function, also referred to as state vector in a complex vector space.[11] This abstract mathematical object allows for
the calculation of probabilities of outcomes of concrete experiments. For example, it allows one to compute the
probability of finding an electron in a particular region around the nucleus at a particular time. Contrary to classical
mechanics, one can never make simultaneous predictions of conjugate variables, such as position and momentum,
with accuracy. For instance, electrons may be considered (to a certain probability) to be located somewhere within a
given region of space, but with their exact positions unknown. Contours of constant probability, often referred to as
"clouds", may be drawn around the nucleus of an atom to conceptualize where the electron might be located with the
most probability. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle quantifies the inability to precisely locate the particle given its
conjugate momentum.
According to one interpretation, as the result of a measurement the wave function containing the probability
information for a system collapses from a given initial state to a particular eigenstate. The possible results of a
measurement are the eigenvalues of the operator representing the observable — which explains the choice of
Hermitian operators, for which all the eigenvalues are real. The probability distribution of an observable in a given
state can be found by computing the spectral decomposition of the corresponding operator. Heisenberg's uncertainty
principle is represented by the statement that the operators corresponding to certain observables do not commute.
The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics thus stems from the act of measurement. This is one of the most
difficult aspects of quantum systems to understand. It was the central topic in the famous Bohr-Einstein debates, in
which the two scientists attempted to clarify these fundamental principles by way of thought experiments. In the
decades after the formulation of quantum mechanics, the question of what constitutes a "measurement" has been
extensively studied. Newer interpretations of quantum mechanics have been formulated that do away with the
concept of "wavefunction collapse" (see, for example, the relative state interpretation). The basic idea is that when a
quantum system interacts with a measuring apparatus, their respective wavefunctions become entangled, so that the
original quantum system ceases to exist as an independent entity. For details, see the article on measurement in
quantum mechanics.[12]
Generally, quantum mechanics does not assign definite values. Instead, it makes a prediction using a probability
distribution; that is, it describes the probability of obtaining the possible outcomes from measuring an observable.
Often these results are skewed by many causes, such as dense probability clouds. Probability clouds are approximate,
but better than the Bohr model, whereby electron location is given by a probability function, the wave function
eigenvalue, such that the probability is the squared modulus of the complex amplitude, or quantum state nuclear
attraction.[13] Naturally, these probabilities will depend on the quantum state at the "instant" of the measurement.
Hence, uncertainty is involved in the value. There are, however, certain states that are associated with a definite
value of a particular observable. These are known as eigenstates of the observable ("eigen" can be translated from
German as meaning "inherent" or "characteristic").[14]
In the everyday world, it is natural and intuitive to think of everything (every observable) as being in an eigenstate.
Everything appears to have a definite position, a definite momentum, a definite energy, and a definite time of
occurrence. However, quantum mechanics does not pinpoint the exact values of a particle's position and momentum
(since they are conjugate pairs) or its energy and time (since they too are conjugate pairs); rather, it provides only a
range of probabilities in which that particle might be given its momentum and momentum probability. Therefore, it
is helpful to use different words to describe states having uncertain values and states having definite values
(eigenstates). Usually, a system will not be in an eigenstate of the observable (particle) we are interested in.
However, if one measures the observable, the wavefunction will instantaneously be an eigenstate (or "generalized"
eigenstate) of that observable. This process is known as wavefunction collapse, a controversial and much-debated
process that involves expanding the system under study to include the measurement device. If one knows the
corresponding wave function at the instant before the measurement, one will be able to compute the probability of
the wavefunction collapsing into each of the possible eigenstates. For example, the free particle in the previous
example will usually have a wavefunction that is a wave packet centered around some mean position x0 (neither an
eigenstate of position nor of momentum). When one measures the position of the particle, it is impossible to predict
with certainty the result. It is probable, but not certain, that it will be near x0, where the amplitude of the wave
function is large. After the measurement is performed, having obtained some result x, the wave function collapses
into a position eigenstate centered at x.
The time evolution of a quantum state is described by the Schrödinger equation, in which the Hamiltonian (the
operator corresponding to the total energy of the system) generates the time evolution. The time evolution of wave
functions is deterministic in the sense that - given a wavefunction at an initial time - it makes a definite prediction of
what the wavefunction will be at any later time.
During a measurement, on the other hand, the change of the initial wavefunction into another, later wavefunction is
not deterministic, it is unpredictable (i.e., random). A time-evolution simulation can be seen here.
Wave functions change as time progresses. The Schrödinger equation describes how wavefunctions change in time,
playing a role similar to Newton's second law in classical mechanics. The Schrödinger equation, applied to the
aforementioned example of the free particle, predicts that the center of a wave packet will move through space at a
constant velocity (like a classical particle with no forces acting on it). However, the wave packet will also spread out
as time progresses, which means that the position becomes more uncertain with time. This also has the effect of
turning a position eigenstate (which can be thought of as an infinitely sharp wave packet) into a broadened wave
packet that no longer represents a (definite, certain) position eigenstate.[15]
Some wave functions produce probability
distributions that are constant, or independent of
time - such as when in a stationary state of
constant energy, time vanishes in the absolute
square of the wave function. Many systems that
are treated dynamically in classical mechanics are
described by such "static" wave functions. For
example, a single electron in an unexcited atom is
pictured classically as a particle moving in a
circular trajectory around the atomic nucleus,
whereas in quantum mechanics it is described by
a static, spherically symmetric wavefunction
surrounding the nucleus (Fig. 1) (note, however,
that only the lowest angular momentum states,
labeled s, are spherically symmetric).
The Schrödinger equation acts on the entire

probability amplitude, not merely its absolute
Fig. 1: Probability densities corresponding to the wavefunctions of an
value. Whereas the absolute value of the electron in a hydrogen atom possessing definite energy levels (increasing
probability amplitude encodes information about from the top of the image to the bottom: n = 1, 2, 3, ...) and angular
probabilities, its phase encodes information about momenta (increasing across from left to right: s, p, d, ...). Brighter areas
correspond to higher probability density in a position measurement. Such
the interference between quantum states. This
wavefunctions are directly comparable to Chladni's figures of acoustic
gives rise to the "wave-like" behavior of quantum modes of vibration in classical physics, and are modes of oscillation as well,
states. As it turns out, analytic solutions of the possessing a sharp energy and, thus, a definite frequency. The angular
Schrödinger equation are available for only a very momentum and energy are quantized, and take only discrete values like
those shown (as is the case for resonant frequencies in acoustics)
small number of relatively simple model
Hamiltonians, of which the quantum harmonic
oscillator, the particle in a box, the hydrogen molecular ion, and the hydrogen atom are the most important
representatives. Even the helium atom - which contains just one more electron than does the hydrogen atom - has
defied all attempts at a fully analytic treatment.
There exist several techniques for generating approximate solutions, however. In the important method known as
perturbation theory, one uses the analytic result for a simple quantum mechanical model to generate a result for a
more complicated model that is related to the simpler model by (for one example) the addition of a weak potential
energy. Another method is the "semi-classical equation of motion" approach, which applies to systems for which
quantum mechanics produces only weak (small) deviations from classical behavior. These deviations can then be
computed based on the classical motion. This approach is particularly important in the field of quantum chaos.
Mathematically equivalent formulations of quantum mechanics

There are numerous mathematically equivalent formulations of quantum mechanics. One of the oldest and most
commonly used formulations is the "transformation theory" proposed by the late Cambridge theoretical physicist
Paul Dirac, which unifies and generalizes the two earliest formulations of quantum mechanics—matrix mechanics
(invented by Werner Heisenberg) and wave mechanics (invented by Erwin Schrödinger).[16]
Especially since Werner Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for the creation of quantum
mechanics, the role of Max Born in the development of QM was overlooked until the 1954 Nobel award. The role is
noted in a 2005 biography of Born, which recounts his role in the matrix formulation of quantum mechanics, and the
use of probability amplitudes. Heisenberg himself acknowledges having learned matrices from Born, as published in
a 1940 festschrift honoring Max Planck.[17] In the matrix formulation, the instantaneous state of a quantum system
encodes the probabilities of its measurable properties, or "observables". Examples of observables include energy,
position, momentum, and angular momentum. Observables can be either continuous (e.g., the position of a particle)
or discrete (e.g., the energy of an electron bound to a hydrogen atom).[18] An alternative formulation of quantum
mechanics is Feynman's path integral formulation, in which a quantum-mechanical amplitude is considered as a sum
over all possible histories between the initial and final states. This is the quantum-mechanical counterpart of the
action principle in classical mechanics.
Interactions with other scientific theories

The rules of quantum mechanics are fundamental. They assert that the state space of a system is a Hilbert space, and
that observables of that system are Hermitian operators acting on that space—although they do not tell us which
Hilbert space or which operators. These can be chosen appropriately in order to obtain a quantitative description of a
quantum system. An important guide for making these choices is the correspondence principle, which states that the
predictions of quantum mechanics reduce to those of classical mechanics when a system moves to higher energies
or—equivalently—larger quantum numbers, i.e. whereas a single particle exhibits a degree of randomness, in
systems incorporating millions of particles averaging takes over and, at the high energy limit, the statistical
probability of random behaviour approaches zero. In other words, classical mechanics is simply a quantum
mechanics of large systems. This "high energy" limit is known as the classical or correspondence limit. One can
even start from an established classical model of a particular system, then attempt to guess the underlying quantum
model that would give rise to the classical model in the correspondence limit.
List of unsolved problems in physics

In the correspondence limit of quantum mechanics: Is there a preferred interpretation of quantum mechanics? How does the quantum description
of reality, which includes elements such as the "superposition of states" and "wavefunction collapse", give rise to the reality we perceive?
When quantum mechanics was originally formulated, it was applied to models whose correspondence limit was
non-relativistic classical mechanics. For instance, the well-known model of the quantum harmonic oscillator uses an
explicitly non-relativistic expression for the kinetic energy of the oscillator, and is thus a quantum version of the
classical harmonic oscillator.
Early attempts to merge quantum mechanics with special relativity involved the replacement of the Schrödinger
equation with a covariant equation such as the Klein-Gordon equation or the Dirac equation. While these theories
were successful in explaining many experimental results, they had certain unsatisfactory qualities stemming from
their neglect of the relativistic creation and annihilation of particles. A fully relativistic quantum theory required the
development of quantum field theory, which applies quantization to a field (rather than a fixed set of particles). The
first complete quantum field theory, quantum electrodynamics, provides a fully quantum description of the
electromagnetic interaction. The full apparatus of quantum field theory is often unnecessary for describing
electrodynamic systems. A simpler approach, one that has been employed since the inception of quantum mechanics,
is to treat charged particles as quantum mechanical objects being acted on by a classical electromagnetic field. For
example, the elementary quantum model of the hydrogen atom describes the electric field of the hydrogen atom
using a classical Coulomb potential. This "semi-classical" approach fails if quantum fluctuations in
the electromagnetic field play an important role, such as in the emission of photons by charged particles.
Quantum field theories for the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force have also been developed. The
quantum field theory of the strong nuclear force is called quantum chromodynamics, and describes the interactions
of subnuclear particles such as quarks and gluons. The weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force were
unified, in their quantized forms, into a single quantum field theory (known as electroweak theory), by the physicists
Abdus Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg. These three men shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979
for this work.
It has proven difficult to construct quantum models of gravity, the remaining fundamental force. Semi-classical
approximations are workable, and have led to predictions such as Hawking radiation. However, the formulation of a
complete theory of quantum gravity is hindered by apparent incompatibilities between general relativity (the most
accurate theory of gravity currently known) and some of the fundamental assumptions of quantum theory. The
resolution of these incompatibilities is an area of active research, and theories such as string theory are among the
possible candidates for a future theory of quantum gravity.
Classical mechanics has also been extended into the complex domain, with complex classical mechanics exhibiting
behaviors similar to quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics and classical physics

Predictions of quantum mechanics have been verified experimentally to an extremely high degree of accuracy.[19]
According to the correspondence principle between classical and quantum mechanics, all objects obey the laws of
quantum mechanics, and classical mechanics is just an approximation for large systems of objects (or a statistical
quantum mechanics of a large collection of particles). The laws of classical mechanics thus follow from the laws of
quantum mechanics as a statistical average at the limit of large systems or large quantum numbers. However, chaotic
systems do not have good quantum numbers, and quantum chaos studies the relationship between classical and
quantum descriptions in these systems.
Quantum coherence is an essential difference between classical and quantum theories, and is illustrated by the
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, Einstein's attempt to disprove quantum mechanics by an appeal to local
realism.[20] Quantum interference involves adding together probability amplitudes, whereas classical "waves" infer
that there is an adding together of intensities. For microscopic bodies, the extension of the system is much smaller
than the coherence length, which gives rise to long-range entanglement and other nonlocal phenomena that are
characteristic of quantum systems. Quantum coherence is not typically evident at macroscopic scales — although an
exception to this rule can occur at extremely low temperatures (i.e. approaching absolute zero), when quantum
behavior can manifest itself on more macroscopic scales.[21] This is in accordance with the following observations:
• Many macroscopic properties of a classical system are a direct consequence of the quantum behavior of its parts.
For example, the stability of bulk matter (which consists of atoms and molecules which would quickly collapse
under electric forces alone), the rigidity of solids, and the mechanical, thermal, chemical, optical and magnetic
properties of matter are all results of the interaction of electric charges under the rules of quantum mechanics.
• While the seemingly "exotic" behavior of matter posited by quantum mechanics and relativity theory become
more apparent when dealing with particles of extremely small size or velocities approaching the speed of light,
the laws of classical Newtonian physics remain accurate in predicting the behavior of the vast majority of "large"
objects (on the order of the size of large molecules or bigger) at velocities much smaller than the velocity of
light.[22]
Relativity and quantum mechanics

Even with the defining postulates of both Einstein's theory of general relativity and quantum theory being
indisputably supported by rigorous and repeated empirical evidence and while they do not directly contradict each
other theoretically (at least with regard to their primary claims), they have proven extremely difficult to incorporate
into one consistent, cohesive model.[23]
Einstein himself is well known for rejecting some of the claims of quantum mechanics. While clearly contributing to
the field, he did not accept many of the more "philosophical consequences and interpretations" of quantum
mechanics, such as the lack of deterministic causality. He is famously quoted as saying, in response to this aspect,
"My God does not play with dice". He also had difficulty with the assertion that a single subatomic particle can
occupy numerous areas of space at one time. However, he was also the first to notice some of the apparently exotic
consequences of entanglement, and used them to formulate the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox in the hope of
showing that quantum mechanics had unacceptable implications if taken as a complete description of physical
reality. This was 1935, but in 1964 it was shown by John Bell (see Bell inequality) that - although Einstein was
correct in identifying seemingly paradoxical implications of quantum mechanical nonlocality - these implications
could be experimentally tested. Alain Aspect's initial experiments in 1982, and many subsequent experiments since,
have definitively verified quantum entanglement.
According to the paper of J. Bell and the Copenhagen interpretation—the common interpretation of quantum
mechanics by physicists since 1927 - and contrary to Einstein's ideas, quantum mechanics was not, at the same time
a "realistic" theory and a "local" theory.
The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox shows in any case that there exist experiments by which one can measure the
state of one particle and instantaneously change the state of its entangled partner - although the two particles can be
an arbitrary distance apart. However, this effect does not violate causality, since no transfer of information happens.
Quantum entanglement forms the basis of quantum cryptography, which is used in high-security commercial
applications in banking and government.
Gravity is negligible in many areas of particle physics, so that unification between general relativity and quantum
mechanics is not an urgent issue in those particular applications. However, the lack of a correct theory of quantum
gravity is an important issue in cosmology and the search by physicists for an elegant "Theory of Everything"
(TOE). Consequently, resolving the inconsistencies between both theories has been a major goal of 20th and 21st
century physics. Many prominent physicists, including Stephen Hawking, have labored for many years in the attempt
to discover a theory underlying everything. This TOE would combine not only the different models of subatomic
physics, but also derive the four fundamental forces of nature - the strong force, electromagnetism, the weak force,
and gravity - from a single force or phenomenon. While Stephen Hawking was initially a believer in the Theory of
Everything, after considering Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, he has concluded that one is not obtainable, and has
stated so publicly in his lecture "Gödel and the End of Physics" (2002).[24]
Attempts at a unified field theory

The quest to unify the fundamental forces through quantum mechanics is still ongoing. Quantum electrodynamics (or
"quantum electromagnetism"), which is currently (in the perturbative regime at least) the most accurately tested
physical theory, Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources(blog) has been successfully merged with the weak nuclear
force into the electroweak force and work is currently being done to merge the electroweak and strong force into the
electrostrong force. Current predictions state that at around 1014 GeV the three aforementioned forces are fused into
a single unified field, Beyond this "grand unification," it is speculated that it may be possible to merge gravity with
the other three gauge symmetries, expected to occur at roughly 1019 GeV. However — and while special relativity is
parsimoniously incorporated into quantum electrodynamics — the expanded general relativity, currently the best
theory describing the gravitation force, has not been fully incorporated into quantum theory. One of the leading
authorities continuing the search for a coherent TOE is Edward Witten, a theoretical physicist who formulated the
groundbreaking M-theory, which is an attempt at describing the supersymmetrical based string theory. M-theory
posits that our apparent 4-dimensional spacetime is, in reality, actually an 11-dimensional spacetime containing 10
spatial dimensions and 1 time dimension, although 7 of the spatial dimensions are - at lower energies - completely
"compactified" (or infinitely curved) and not readily amenable to measurement or probing.
Another popular theory is Loop quantum gravity (LQG), a theory that describes the quantum properties of gravity. It
is also a theory of quantum space and quantum time, because in general relativity the geometry of spacetime is a
manifestation of gravity. LQG is an attempt to merge and adapt standard quantum mechanics and standard general
relativity. The main output of the theory is a physical picture of space where space is granular. The granularity is a
direct consequence of the quantization. It has the same nature of the granularity of the photons in the quantum theory
of electromagnetism or the discrete levels of the energy of the atoms. But here it is space itself which is discrete.
More precisely, space can be viewed as an extremely fine fabric or network "woven" of finite loops. These networks
of loops are called spin networks. The evolution of a spin network over time, is called a spin foam. The predicted
size of this structure is the Planck length, which is approximately 1.616×10−35 m. According to theory, there is no
meaning to length shorter than this (cf. Planck scale energy). Therefore LQG predicts that not just matter, but also
space itself, has an atomic structure. Loop quantum Gravity was first proposed by Carlo Rovelli.
Philosophical implications
Since its inception, the many counter-intuitive aspects and results of quantum mechanics have provoked strong
philosophical debates and many interpretations. Even fundamental issues, such as Max Born's basic rules concerning
probability amplitudes and probability distributions took decades to be appreciated by society and many leading
scientists. Richard Feynman once said, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."[25]
The Copenhagen interpretation - due largely to the Danish theoretical physicist Niels Bohr - remains the quantum
mechanical formalism that is currently most widely accepted amongst physicists, some 75 years after its enunciation.
According to this interpretation, the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is not a temporary feature which will
eventually be replaced by a deterministic theory, but instead must be considered a final renunciation of the classical
idea of "causality". It is also believed therein that any well-defined application of the quantum mechanical formalism
must always make reference to the experimental arrangement, due to the complementarity nature of evidence
obtained under different experimental situations.
Albert Einstein, himself one of the founders of quantum theory, disliked this loss of determinism in measurement.
Einstein held that there should be a local hidden variable theory underlying quantum mechanics and, consequently,
that the present theory was incomplete. He produced a series of objections to the theory, the most famous of which
has become known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox. John Bell showed that this "EPR" paradox led to
experimentally testable differences between quantum mechanics and local realistic theories. Experiments have been
performed confirming the accuracy of quantum mechanics, thereby demonstrating that the physical world cannot be
described by any local realistic theory. The Bohr-Einstein debates provide a vibrant critique of the Copenhagen
Interpretation from an epistemological point of view.
The Everett many-worlds interpretation, formulated in 1956, holds that all the possibilities described by quantum
theory simultaneously occur in a multiverse composed of mostly independent parallel universes. This is not
accomplished by introducing some "new axiom" to quantum mechanics, but on the contrary, by removing the axiom
of the collapse of the wave packet. All of the possible consistent states of the measured system and the measuring
apparatus (including the observer) are present in a real physical - not just formally mathematical, as in other
interpretations - quantum superposition. Such a superposition of consistent state combinations of different systems is
called an entangled state. While the multiverse is deterministic, we perceive non-deterministic behavior governed by
probabilities, because we can observe only the universe (i.e., the consistent state contribution to the aforementioned
superposition) that we, as observers, inhabit. Everett's interpretation is perfectly consistent with John Bell's
experiments and makes them intuitively understandable. However, according to the theory of quantum decoherence,
these "parallel universes" will never be accessible to us. The inaccessibility can be understood as follows: once a
measurement is done, the measured system becomes entangled with both the physicist who measured it and a huge
number of other particles, some of which are photons flying away at the speed of light towards the other end of the
universe. In order to prove that the wave function did not collapse, one would have to bring all these particles back
and measure them again, together with the system that was originally measured. Not only is this completely
impractical, but even if one could theoretically do this, it would have to destroy any evidence that the original
measurement took place (to include the physicist's memory!); in light of these Bell tests, Cramer (1986) formulated
his transactional interpretation.[26] Relational quantum mechanics appeared in the late 1990s as the modern
derivative of the Copenhagen Interpretation.
Applications
Quantum mechanics had enormous[27] success in explaining many of the features of our world. Quantum mechanics
is often the only tool available that can reveal the individual behaviors of the subatomic particles that make up all
forms of matter (electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, and others). Quantum mechanics has strongly influenced
string theories, candidates for a Theory of Everything (see reductionism).
Quantum mechanics is also critically important for understanding how individual atoms combine covalently to form
molecules. The application of quantum mechanics to chemistry is known as quantum chemistry. Relativistic
quantum mechanics can, in principle, mathematically describe most of chemistry. Quantum mechanics can also
provide quantitative insight into ionic and covalent bonding processes by explicitly showing which molecules are
energetically favorable to which others, and the magnitudes of the energies involved. Furthermore, most of the
calculations performed in modern computational chemistry rely on quantum mechanics.
A great deal of modern technological
inventions operate at a scale where
quantum effects are significant.
Examples include the laser, the
transistor (and thus the microchip), the
electron microscope, and magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI). The study
of semiconductors led to the invention
of the diode and the transistor, which
are indispensable parts of modern
electronics systems and devices.
Researchers are currently seeking

robust methods of directly
manipulating quantum states. Efforts
are being made to more fully develop
quantum cryptography, which will
A working mechanism of a resonant tunneling diode device, based on the phenomenon of
theoretically allow guaranteed secure quantum tunneling through potential barriers
transmission of information. A more
distant goal is the development of
quantum computers, which are expected to perform certain computational tasks exponentially faster than classical
computers. Another active research topic is quantum teleportation, which deals with techniques to transmit quantum
information over arbitrary distances.
Quantum tunneling is vital to the operation of many devices - even in the simple light switch, as otherwise the
electrons in the electric current could not penetrate the potential barrier made up of a layer of oxide. Flash memory
chips found in USB drives use quantum tunneling to erase their memory cells.
While quantum mechanics primarily applies to the atomic regimes of matter and energy, some systems exhibit
quantum mechanical effects on a large scale - superfluidity, the frictionless flow of a liquid at temperatures near
absolute zero, is one well-known example. Quantum theory also provides accurate descriptions for many previously
unexplained phenomena, such as black body radiation and the stability of the orbitals of electrons in atoms. It has
also given insight into the workings of many different biological systems, including smell receptors and protein
structures. Recent work on photosynthesis has provided evidence that quantum correlations play an essential role in
this basic fundamental process of the plant kingdom. Even so, classical physics can often provide good
approximations to results otherwise obtained by quantum physics, typically in circumstances with large numbers of
particles or large quantum numbers.
Examples
Free particle
For example, consider a free particle. In quantum mechanics, there is wave-particle duality, so the properties of the
particle can be described as the properties of a wave. Therefore, its quantum state can be represented as a wave of
arbitrary shape and extending over space as a wave function. The position and momentum of the particle are
observables. The Uncertainty Principle states that both the position and the momentum cannot simultaneously be
measured with complete precision. However, one can measure the position (alone) of a moving free particle, creating
an eigenstate of position with a wavefunction that is very large (a Dirac delta) at a particular position x, and zero
everywhere else. If one performs a position measurement on such a wavefunction, the resultant x will be obtained
with 100% probability (i.e., with full certainty, or complete precision). This is called an eigenstate of position—or,
stated in mathematical terms, a generalized position eigenstate (eigendistribution). If the particle is in an eigenstate
of position, then its momentum is completely unknown. On the other hand, if the particle is in an eigenstate of
momentum, then its position is completely unknown.[28] In an eigenstate of momentum having a plane wave form, it
can be shown that the wavelength is equal to h/p, where h is Planck's constant and p is the momentum of the
eigenstate.
3D confined electron wave functions for each eigenstate in a Quantum Dot. Here, rectangular and triangular-shaped quantum dots are shown. Energy
states in rectangular dots are more ‘s-type’ and ‘p-type’. However, in a triangular dot, the wave functions are mixed due to confinement symmetry.
Step potential
The potential in this case is given by:
The solutions are superpositions of

left- and right-moving waves:
where the wave vectors are related to

the energy via
, and
Scattering at a finite potential step of height V0, shown in green. The amplitudes and
direction of left- and right-moving waves are indicated. Yellow is the incident wave, blue
are reflected and transmitted waves, red does not occur. E > V0 for this figure.
and the coefficients A and B are
determined from the boundary
conditions and by imposing a continuous derivative on the solution.
Each term of the solution can be interpreted as an incident, reflected, or transmitted component of the wave, allowing
the calculation of transmission and reflection coefficients. In contrast to classical mechanics, incident particles with
energies higher than the size of the potential step are still partially reflected.
Rectangular potential barrier

This is a model for the quantum tunneling effect, which has important applications to modern devices such as flash
memory and the scanning tunneling microscope.
Particle in a box
The particle in a one-dimensional potential energy box is the most
simple example where restraints lead to the quantization of energy
levels. The box is defined as having zero potential energy everywhere
inside a certain region, and infinite potential energy everywhere
outside' that region. For the one-dimensional case in the direction,
the time-independent Schrödinger equation can be written as:[29]
Writing the differential operator

1-dimensional potential energy box (or infinite
potential well)
the previous equation can be seen to be evocative of the classic kinetic energy analogue
with as the energy for the state , which in this case coincides with the kinetic energy of the particle.
The general solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the particle in a box are:
or, from Euler's formula,
The presence of the walls of the box determines the values of C, D, and k. At each wall (x = 0 and x = L), ψ = 0.
Thus when x = 0,
and so D = 0. When x = L,
C cannot be zero, since this would conflict with the Born interpretation. Therefore, sin kL = 0, and so it must be that
kL is an integer multiple of π. And additionally,
The quantization of energy levels follows from this constraint on k, since

Finite potential well

This is the generalization of the infinite potential well problem to potential wells of finite depth.
Harmonic oscillator
As in the classical case, the potential for the
quantum harmonic oscillator is given by:
This problem can be solved either by solving

the Schrödinger equation directly, which is
not trivial, or by using the more elegant
"ladder method", first proposed by Paul
Dirac. The eigenstates are given by:
Some trajectories of a harmonic oscillator (i.e. a ball attached to a spring) in

classical mechanics (A-B) and quantum mechanics (C-H). In quantum mechanics,
the position of the ball is represented by a wave (called the wavefunction), with
the real part shown in blue and the imaginary part shown in red. Some of the
trajectories (such as C,D,E,and F) are standing waves (or "stationary states").
Each standing-wave frequency is proportional to a possible energy level of the
oscillator. This "energy quantization" does not occur in classical physics, where
the oscillator can have any energy.
where Hn are the Hermite polynomials:
and the corresponding energy levels are
This is another example which illustrates the quantization of energy for bound states.
Notes
[1] The angular momentum of an unbound electron, in contrast, is not quantized.
[2] Max Born & Emil Wolf, Principles of Optics, 1999, Cambridge University Press
[3] http:/ / www. ias. ac. in/ resonance/ December2010/ p1056-1059. pdf
[4] Reprinted in The collected papers of Albert Einstein, John Stachel, editor, Princeton University Press, 1989, Vol. 2, pp. 149-166, in German;
see also Einstein's early work on the quantum hypothesis, ibid. pp. 134-148.
[5] http:/ / mooni. fccj. org/ ~ethall/ quantum/ quant. htm
[6] Compare the list of conferences presented here (http:/ / ysfine. com/ )
[7] P.A.M. Dirac, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1930.
[8] D. Hilbert Lectures on Quantum Theory, 1915-1927
[9] J. von Neumann, Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik, Springer, Berlin, 1932 (English translation: Mathematical Foundations
of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press, 1955).
[10] H.Weyl "The Theory of Groups and Quantum Mechanics", 1931 (original title: "Gruppentheorie und Quantenmechanik").
[11] , Chapter 1, p. 52 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=gCfvWx6vuzUC& pg=PA52)
[12] , Chapter 8, p. 215 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=5t0tm0FB1CsC& pg=PA215)
[13] , Chapter , p. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=W2J2IXgiZVgC& pg=PA265)
[14] Dict.cc (http:/ / www. dict. cc/ german-english/ eigen. html)
De.pons.eu (http:/ / de. pons. eu/ deutsch-englisch/ eigen)
[15] , Chapter 2, p. 36 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=_qzs1DD3TcsC& pg=PA36)
[16] http:/ / th-www. if. uj. edu. pl/ acta/ vol19/ pdf/ v19p0683. pdf
[17] Nancy Thorndike Greenspan, "The End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born" (Basic Books, 2005), pp. 124-8 and
285-6.
[18] http:/ / ocw. usu. edu/ physics/ classical-mechanics/ pdf_lectures/ 06. pdf
[19] See, for example, Precision tests of QED. The relativistic refinement of quantum mechanics known as quantum electrodynamics (QED) has
been shown to agree with experiment to within 1 part in 108 for some atomic properties.
[20] A. Einstein, B. Podolsky, and N. Rosen, Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete? (http:/ / www.
drchinese. com/ David/ EPR. pdf) Phys. Rev. 47 777 (1935). (http:/ / prola. aps. org/ abstract/ PR/ v47/ i10/ p777_1)
[21] (see macroscopic quantum phenomena, Bose-Einstein condensate, and Quantum machine)
[22] http:/ / assets. cambridge. org/ 97805218/ 29526/ excerpt/ 9780521829526_excerpt. pdf
[23] "There is as yet no logically consistent and complete relativistic quantum field theory.", p. 4. — V. B. Berestetskii, E. M. Lifshitz, L P
Pitaevskii (1971). J. B. Sykes, J. S. Bell (translators). Relativistic Quantum Theory 4, part I. Course of Theoretical Physics (Landau and
Lifshitz) ISBN 0-08-016025-5
[24] Stephen Hawking; Gödel and the end of physics (http:/ / www. damtp. cam. ac. uk/ strings02/ dirac/ hawking/ )
[25] The Character of Physical Law (1965) Ch. 6; also quoted in The New Quantum Universe (2003), by Tony Hey and Patrick Walters
[26] The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (http:/ / www. npl. washington. edu/ npl/ int_rep/ tiqm/ TI_toc. html) by John
Cramer. Reviews of Modern Physics 58, 647-688, July (1986)
[27] See, for example, the Feynman Lectures on Physics for some of the technological applications which use quantum mechanics, e.g.,
transistors (vol III, pp. 14-11 ff), integrated circuits, which are follow-on technology in solid-state physics (vol II, pp. 8-6), and lasers (vol III,
pp. 9-13).
[28] , Chapter 6, p. 79 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=XRyHCrGNstoC& pg=PA79)
[29] Derivation of particle in a box, chemistry.tidalswan.com (http:/ / chemistry. tidalswan. com/ index. php?title=Quantum_Mechanics)
References
The following titles, all by working physicists, attempt to communicate quantum theory to lay people, using a
minimum of technical apparatus.
• Malin, Shimon (2012). Nature Loves to Hide: Quantum Physics and the Nature of Reality, a Western Perspective
(Revised ed.). World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-4324-57-1.
• Chester, Marvin (1987) Primer of Quantum Mechanics. John Wiley. ISBN 0-486-42878-8
• Richard Feynman, 1985. QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, Princeton University Press. ISBN
0-691-08388-6. Four elementary lectures on quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory, yet containing
many insights for the expert.
• Ghirardi, GianCarlo, 2004. Sneaking a Look at God's Cards, Gerald Malsbary, trans. Princeton Univ. Press. The
most technical of the works cited here. Passages using algebra, trigonometry, and bra-ket notation can be passed
over on a first reading.
• N. David Mermin, 1990, "Spooky actions at a distance: mysteries of the QT" in his Boojums all the way through.
Cambridge University Press: 110-76.
• Victor Stenger, 2000. Timeless Reality: Symmetry, Simplicity, and Multiple Universes. Buffalo NY: Prometheus
Books. Chpts. 5-8. Includes cosmological and philosophical considerations.
More technical:
• Bryce DeWitt, R. Neill Graham, eds., 1973. The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton
Series in Physics, Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08131-X
• Dirac, P. A. M. (1930). The Principles of Quantum Mechanics. ISBN 0-19-852011-5. The beginning chapters
make up a very clear and comprehensible introduction.
• Hugh Everett, 1957, "Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics," Reviews of Modern Physics 29:
454-62.
• Feynman, Richard P.; Leighton, Robert B.; Sands, Matthew (1965). The Feynman Lectures on Physics 1–3.
Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-7382-0008-5.
• Griffiths, David J. (2004). Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-111892-7.
OCLC 40251748 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40251748). A standard undergraduate text.
• Max Jammer, 1966. The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. McGraw Hill.
• Hagen Kleinert, 2004. Path Integrals in Quantum Mechanics, Statistics, Polymer Physics, and Financial Markets,
3rd ed. Singapore: World Scientific. Draft of 4th edition. (http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/b5)
• Gunther Ludwig, 1968. Wave Mechanics. London: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-203204-1
• George Mackey (2004). The mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. Dover Publications. ISBN
0-486-43517-2.
• Albert Messiah, 1966. Quantum Mechanics (Vol. I), English translation from French by G. M. Temmer. North
Holland, John Wiley & Sons. Cf. chpt. IV, section III.
• Omnès, Roland (1999). Understanding Quantum Mechanics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00435-8.
• Scerri, Eric R., 2006. The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance. Oxford University Press. Considers the
extent to which chemistry and the periodic system have been reduced to quantum mechanics. ISBN
0-19-530573-6
• Transnational College of Lex (1996). What is Quantum Mechanics? A Physics Adventure. Language Research
Foundation, Boston. ISBN 0-9643504-1-6. OCLC 34661512 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34661512).
• von Neumann, John (1955). Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-02893-1.
• Hermann Weyl, 1950. The Theory of Groups and Quantum Mechanics, Dover Publications.
• D. Greenberger, K. Hentschel, F. Weinert, eds., 2009. Compendium of quantum physics, Concepts, experiments,
history and philosophy, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Further reading
• Bernstein, Jeremy (2009). Quantum Leaps (http://books.google.com/books?id=j0Me3brYOL0C&
printsec=frontcover). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
ISBN 978-0-674-03541-6.
• Müller-Kirsten, H. J. W. (2012). Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: Schrödinger Equation and Path Integral
(2nd ed.). World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-4397-74-2.
• Bohm, David (1989). Quantum Theory. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-65969-0.
• Eisberg, Robert; Resnick, Robert (1985). Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles
(2nd ed.). Wiley. ISBN 0-471-87373-X.
• Liboff, Richard L. (2002). Introductory Quantum Mechanics. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-8053-8714-5.
• Merzbacher, Eugen (1998). Quantum Mechanics. Wiley, John & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-88702-1.
• Sakurai, J. J. (1994). Modern Quantum Mechanics. Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-53929-2.
• Shankar, R. (1994). Principles of Quantum Mechanics. Springer. ISBN 0-306-44790-8.
• Cox, Brian; Forshaw, Jeff (2011). The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen. Allen
Lane. ISBN 1-84614-432-9.
External links
• 3D animations, applications and research for basic quantum effects (http://www.toutestquantique.fr)
(animations also available in commons.wikimedia.org (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
Special:Contributions/Jubobroff) (Université paris Sud)
• Quantum Cook Book (http://oyc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/notes_quantum_cookbook.pdf) by R. Shankar,
Open Yale PHYS 201 material (4pp)
• A foundation approach to quantum Theory that does not rely on wave-particle duality. (http://www.mesacc.
edu/~kevinlg/i256/QM_basics.pdf)
• The Modern Revolution in Physics (http://www.lightandmatter.com/lm/) - an online textbook.
• J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson: A history of quantum mechanics. (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/
history/HistTopics/The_Quantum_age_begins.html)
• Introduction to Quantum Theory at Quantiki. (http://www.quantiki.org/wiki/index.php/
Introduction_to_Quantum_Theory)
• Quantum Physics Made Relatively Simple (http://bethe.cornell.edu/): three video lectures by Hans Bethe
• H is for h-bar. (http://www.nonlocal.com/hbar/)
• Quantum Mechanics Books Collection (http://www.freebookcentre.net/Physics/Quantum-Mechanics-Books.
html): Collection of free books
Course material
• Doron Cohen: Lecture notes in Quantum Mechanics (comprehensive, with advanced topics). (http://arxiv.org/
abs/quant-ph/0605180)
• MIT OpenCourseWare: Chemistry (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Chemistry/index.htm).
• MIT OpenCourseWare: Physics (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/index.htm). See 8.04 (http://ocw.
mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-04Spring-2006/CourseHome/index.htm)
• Stanford Continuing Education PHY 25: Quantum Mechanics (https://www.youtube.com/stanford#g/c/
84C10A9CB1D13841) by Leonard Susskind, see course description (http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/
courses/course.php?cid=20072_PHY 25) Fall 2007
• 5½ Examples in Quantum Mechanics (http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/QM/)
• Imperial College Quantum Mechanics Course. (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/quantuminformation/qi/tutorials)
• Spark Notes - Quantum Physics. (http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/physics/
chapter19section3.rhtml)
• Quantum Physics Online : interactive introduction to quantum mechanics (RS applets). (http://www.
quantum-physics.polytechnique.fr/)
• Experiments to the foundations of quantum physics with single photons. (http://www.didaktik.physik.
uni-erlangen.de/quantumlab/english/index.html)
• AQME (http://www.nanohub.org/topics/AQME) : Advancing Quantum Mechanics for Engineers — by
T.Barzso, D.Vasileska and G.Klimeck online learning resource with simulation tools on nanohub
• Quantum Mechanics (http://www.lsr.ph.ic.ac.uk/~plenio/lecture.pdf) by Martin Plenio
• Quantum Mechanics (http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/qm/389.pdf) by Richard Fitzpatrick
• Online course on Quantum Transport (http://nanohub.org/resources/2039)
FAQs
• Many-worlds or relative-state interpretation. (http://www.hedweb.com/manworld.htm)

• Measurement in Quantum mechanics. (http://www.mtnmath.com/faq/meas-qm.html)
Media
• PHYS 201: Fundamentals of Physics II (http://oyc.yale.edu/physics/phys-201#sessions) by Ramamurti
Shankar, Open Yale Course
• Lectures on Quantum Mechanics (https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=84C10A9CB1D13841) by
Leonard Susskind
• Everything you wanted to know about the quantum world (http://www.newscientist.com/channel/
fundamentals/quantum-world) — archive of articles from New Scientist.
• Quantum Physics Research (http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/quantum_physics/) from
Science Daily
• Overbye, Dennis (December 27, 2005). "Quantum Trickery: Testing Einstein's Strangest Theory" (http://www.
nytimes.com/2005/12/27/science/27eins.html?scp=1&sq=quantum trickery&st=cse). The New York Times.
Retrieved April 12, 2010.
• Audio: Astronomy Cast (http://www.astronomycast.com/physics/ep-138-quantum-mechanics/) Quantum
Mechanics — June 2009. Fraser Cain interviews Pamela L. Gay.
Philosophy
• "Quantum Mechanics" (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm) entry by Jenann Ismael in the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• "Measurement in Quantum Theory" (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-measurement) entry by Henry Krips
in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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Nuclear Physics

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Nuclear Physics

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Nuclear Physics

My first eBook using Wikipedia by Billy

Smallest recognized division of a chemical element

Mass range: 1.67×10−27 to 4.52×10−25 kg

Electric charge: zero (neutral), or ion charge

Diameter range: 62 pm (He) to 520 pm (Cs) (data page)

Components: Electrons and a compact nucleus of protons and neutrons

History of atomic theory

Origin of scientific theory

Mendeleev's first periodic table (1869)

Subcomponents and quantum theory

In 1909, Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of

Later in the same year Henry Moseley provided additional

Schematic diagram of a simple mass spectrometer

The number of protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus can be

Each atomic orbital corresponds to a particular energy level of the

The amount of energy needed to remove or add an electron—the

Shape and size

When a continuous spectrum of energy is

so drop back to lower energy levels. Thus

Valence and bonding behavior

At temperatures close to absolute zero, atoms can form a

Origin and current state

Rare and theoretical forms

[18] Woan 2000, p. 8.

• Jevremovic, Tatjana (2005). Nuclear Principles in Engineering. Springer. ISBN 0-387-23284-2. OCLC

Nucleus · Nucleons (p, n) · Nuclear force · Nuclear reaction

The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and

The diameter of the nucleus is in the range of 1.75 fm (1.75×10−15 m)

Major exceptions to this rule are the light

Protons and neutrons

Halo nuclei and strong force range limits

Liquid drop models

Shell models and other quantum models

Consistency between models

Composition Elementary particle

Interactions Gravity, Electromagnetic, Weak

Antiparticle Positron (also called antielectron)

Theorized Richard Laming (1838–1851),

Discovered J. J. Thomson (1897)

Confinement of individual electrons

Electrons are identical particles because they cannot be distinguished

An inelastic collision between a photon (light) and a solitary (free)

The relative strength of the electromagnetic interaction between two

Atoms and molecules

Independent electrons moving in vacuum are termed free electrons.

metals—move, they produce a net flow of charge called an electric

Motion and energy

where me is the mass of electron. For example, the Stanford linear

γ + γ ↔ e+ + e− Pair production caused by the collision of a

maintained during this phase of the evolution of the Universe. After 15

At the end of its lifetime, a star with more than

When pairs of virtual particles (such as an

A muon, in turn, can decay to form an electron or positron.

The frequency of a photon is proportional to its energy. As a bound

Electron-beam lithography (EBL) is a method of etching

Nucleus · Nucleons (p, n) · Nuclear force · Nuclear reaction

History of modern physics

Rutherford's team discovers the nucleus

The key experiment behind this announcement happened in

James Chadwick discovers the neutron

Proca's equations of the massive vector boson field

Yukawa's meson postulated to bind nuclei