Chapter 540: In the wave-particle duality of light, does wave refer to electromagnetic waves or probability waves?
The research content of Cock Raofu and others deeply shocked everyone present.
With the continuous improvement of quantum mechanics, the development of nuclear physics has a solid theoretical foundation and its speed will surely improve by leaps and bounds.
At this time, Li Qiwei suddenly said to Irena next to him:
"Irena, since there is an artificial nuclear reaction, is there any artificial radioactivity?"
"Your parents discovered the natural radioactivity of radium, so can we find a way to artificially create radioactivity?"
boom!
There was a thunderclap in Irena's mind!
This idea is incredible!
The birth of radiology has been nearly thirty years.
In 1896, Becquerell first discovered the radioactivity of uranium, opening up the field of radiology.
In 1898, her parents, Curie and his wife discovered more radioactive radium and polonium.
As of now, physicists have discovered dozens of different natural radioactive elements.
But no one has ever thought of artificially creating radioactivity.
Because radioactivity is a spontaneous behavior of atoms, how can it be controlled manually?
Irena asked with little confidence:
"Professor, is this possible?"
Li Qiwei smiled slightly, looking mysterious, and said:
"You didn't try, how could you know it's impossible?"
"This is a topic that suddenly came to my mind. If you are interested, you can try it."
Irena's beautiful eyes burst into brightness.
If she could really achieve artificial radioactivity, she would inevitably bring radiology to a whole new level!
Even surpass her parents and lead the times!
She has already begun to think about it.
Li Qiwei looked at Yirena's cute and infatuated look, which was a little funny.
He sighed in his heart:
"The surging nuclear era is coming!"
After the student report was over, it was Wilson's turn to share the research results of the cloud room.
He walked forward confidently and calmly, looking at everyone, his thoughts flew.
Once upon a time, his cloud chamber was just a simple instrument that could observe microscopic particles.
However, with the rise of modern physics, the role of cloud chambers has become increasingly important and indispensable.
And all this comes from the beautiful encounter at that time.
"Now, I will give you a question. If anyone can solve it within a month, I will give him full marks in this course and will not be used to attend the class in the future."
"."
"By the way, Dr. Wilson, I think the name Particle Observer is not good. How about calling it "Cloud Room"?"
"Bruce, you really have it!"
"."
Memories surged into my heart, and a smile appeared on the corner of Wilson's mouth.
He glanced at Li Qiwei gently, which made the latter instantly get goosebumps.
Soon, Wilson said seriously:
"The birth of the cloud chamber actually comes from the study of X-rays."
"In 1895, the late Professor Rongen discovered X-rays for the first time."
"After the news reached the UK, Professor Thomson was very interested in this new physical phenomenon."
"He began to study the conductivity of air after X-ray exposure."
"He proposed the famous gas ionization theory conjecture, that is, ionization occurs after air is irradiated by X-rays."
"Then, Professor Thomson asked me to do an experiment to verify this conjecture."
"I was inspired by the sunshine and shining on the clouds and conceived the inspiration for the Izumi Room."
"The so-called cloud chamber is a closed metal container filled with a certain amount of water vapor, which looks smoky, hence the name."
"And, this name was chosen by Professor Bruce for me."
"That happened a long time ago. Many of the people here may not have been born yet."
Everyone was surprised.
Unexpectedly, the Cloud Room was also related to Professor Bruce.
"If the air is ionized, then charged particles will be formed."
"These charged particles will form a core, attracting the water vapor in the air to turn into water droplets."
"According to this principle, as long as I use X-rays to irradiate the air, if water droplets appear, it proves that the gas ionization theory is correct."
"In the end, the experiment went smoothly. After opening the X-ray irradiation cloud chamber, water droplets immediately appeared inside."
When everyone heard this, they sighed Professor Wilson's wonderful ideas.
Using such a simple instrument can actually achieve such beautiful results.
Compared with Cock Raof's particle accelerator, the cloud chamber is indeed very simple.
But its problem-solving ideas are very clever, rather than doing miracles like particle accelerators.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Li Qiwei was also reminiscent of memories. During that period, he helped Lao Wei a lot.
At this time, Wilson continued:
"The success of Yunshi made me interested in it."
"I just wondered, can we develop some new functions based on its original basis?"
"Since the ionized air can condense water droplets, are all charged particles okay?"
"Through a lot of experiments, I finally found the current methods of different types of charged particles."
"So, the cloud chamber became an instrument for studying microscopic charged particles, which greatly expanded its scope of use."
"Later, I added a photo function to the cloud room, making it more practical."
"Next, with the continuous development of physics, cloud chambers have gradually become well-known to physicists."
"Its accuracy is getting higher and more functions are getting higher and higher."
"Using it, the parameters such as the velocity, charge, type of particles can be accurately measured."
"."
Everyone listened with relish.
Understanding the transformation process of cloud rooms from beginning to end can help them use cloud rooms more deeply.
Finally, Wilson talked about the issue of the cloud room trajectory in Heisenberg.
"Please see everyone."
"This is the picture of the electronic motion trajectory I took with the highest resolution of the camera cloud room."
"After magnifying 100 times, it can be clearly seen that the path of the electron is indeed intermittent."
"This is perfectly consistent with Professor Bruce's judgment, and it also proves the correctness of matrix mechanics."
Wow!
Everyone was amazed.
As expected, Professor Wilson's cloud room photos are the most authentic, and they are taken clearly and beautiful.
After seeing Heisenberg, the corner of his mouth smiled.
"My matrix mechanics is indeed flawless."
At this moment, he suddenly saw Professor Bruce staring at the photo, thinking about something.
The other person's fingers tapped rhythmically on the chair handle.
Heisenberg was puzzled.
The photo of the electronic track in front of you can be said to perfectly explain the problem.
"What is Professor Bruce thinking about?"
Finally, Wilson suddenly smiled and said:
"It's a pity that my cloud room can't do anything about the probability wave theory proposed by Professor Bruce."
"A theory of such a high-end quantum mechanics cannot be deeply involved in a stupid and thick cloud chamber like me."
"Thank you everyone."
Everyone laughed and then applauded.
Wilson's report allowed everyone to see the style of the experimental boss.
That is a very different style from a theoretical physicist.
At this time, Rutherford said, "The following is the free discussion time in the salon."
"You can discuss any academic topic of interest."
Soon, the room became lively.
Everyone either stood and walked around, sat, talked with two or three people, or threw out topics for everyone to discuss.
Everyone enjoys the food while discussing cutting-edge academic issues.
"Dr. Davidson, how did you think of using nickel targets for experiments?"
"Mr. Cock Rauf, how does your particle accelerator ensure a smooth transition of the electric field?"
"."
In this relaxed environment, it is easier to generate a lot of imaginative inspiration.
At this time, Dirac, who had been taciturn and relatively introverted, suddenly raised a question, which attracted everyone's interest.
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"In the wave-particle duality of light, does a wave refer to an electromagnetic wave or a probability wave?"
After completing his PhD project, Dirac devoted most of his energy to studying quantum mechanics.
Especially the proposal of probability waves made him extremely obsessed with this mysterious theory.
After thinking carefully, everyone found that the more they thought about this question, the more interesting it became.
As Davidson and Thomson Jr. proved the existence of matter waves, wave-particle duality has become a consensus in the physics community.
Many experimental results prove this.
The wave-particle duality of light was proposed a long time ago than the material wave theory.
There is no doubt that the essence of light is electromagnetic waves.
Electromagnetic waves are divided into γ rays, X-rays, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet rays, microwaves and other types according to their wavelength or frequency.
In the general sense, the word [light] generally refers specifically to [visible light], that is, electromagnetic waves with wavelengths between 380nm and 780nm.
That is, the seven colors of light that are well-known: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Soon, everyone expressed their opinions on this issue.
As Dirac's mentor, Fowler thought for a while and first said:
"The wave-particle dispute over hundreds of years, the evidence and theories provided by the wave-shaking faction are all based on traditional mechanical wave theory."
"At that time, physicists lacked understanding of the nature of light, so they could only compare its volatility to mechanical waves."
"With Maxwell unified electromagnetic light, Hertz proved the existence of electromagnetic waves, and physicists finally figured out that the essence of light is electromagnetic waves."
"Therefore, the so-called wave-particle dispute is actually a battle between electromagnetic waves and particles."
"And, when Professor Bruce proposed the wave-particle duality of light, there was no concept of probability waves."
"From these perspectives, in the wave-particle duality of light, waves should refer to electromagnetic waves."
After hearing this, everyone nodded slightly.
Fowler's analysis is very pertinent, and he answers this question from the history of light's research.
But then, he turned around and said:
"However, Dirac's question is interesting."
"After Professor Bruce proposed the concept of photons, he explained that photons are microscopic particles like electrons, protons and other particles."
"It's just that electrons have mass, but photons have no mass."
"But no matter what, as long as it is a microscopic particle, it will definitely satisfy De Broglie's theory of matter waves."
"From this perspective, photons should have probability wave properties."
"In this analysis, light seems to be both an electromagnetic wave and a probability wave."
"This is really an incredible phenomenon."
Everyone exclaimed!
The light is indeed a bit weird.
Electromagnetic waves and probability waves are obviously two fluctuations with completely different natures. How can light have them at the same time?
The existing theories do not understand.
At this time, Heisenberg frowned, as if he had grasped some key.
"I don't think the two words [light] and [photon] cannot be confused with the concept."
"[Light] is a macroscopic phenomenon, an electromagnetic wave formed when the periodically changing electric and magnetic fields move at the speed of light."
"And [photon] refers to the basic unit of light, which is a microscopic concept."
"The energy of electromagnetic waves is transmitted one by one in the form of photons."
"When we talk about the wave-particle duality of light, the light here refers to the macroscopic [light]."
"So, its volatility should specifically refer to waves such as electromagnetic waves."
"But [photons] themselves, as microscopic particles, also have the properties of probability waves."
hiss!
Heisenberg and Fowler's analysis made the problem even more confusing.
The particularity of light was once again revealed to everyone.
Originally, everyone thought that Professor Bruce had resolved hundreds of years of debate after he proposed the wave-particle duality of light.
But with the introduction of probability waves, things seem to be not that simple.
However, Pauli doesn't think so.
"I think this is normal."
"Take water waves as an example, [light] is [water waves], and [photons] are [water molecules]."
"Water waves themselves are composed of countless water molecules."
"In water molecules alone, both hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms have the properties of probability waves."
"But they can still form mechanical waves that are certainly water waves."
Dirac retorted:
"No, this is not the case."
"It should be [light] equivalent to [water wave], and [photon] equivalent to [a unit of water wave]."
"But even a unit of water waves, it is still a mechanical wave, not a probability wave."
Pauli disagrees.
"Nonsense!"
Irena said:
"I think Dirac is right."
At this time, Heisenberg added:
"This will create a problem."
"Since [photon] has the properties of a probability wave, its position in space and time should also be probabilistic."
"But why does a large number of [photons] form [light] but light has a certain straight motion trajectory?"
"Why doesn't it permeate the entire universe like an electron?"
Everyone was shocked.
"Yes, why?"
Little Prague is an expert in electromagnetics, he said:
"Maybe this is a mathematical problem, the statistical behavior of a large number of photons offsets the probability randomness of a single photon."
In real history, after Rutherford's death in 1937, Prague Jr. became Cavendish's fifth director.
After he came to power, he gave up his field of expertise and instead vigorously developed marginal disciplines such as solid physics, biophysics, and astrophysics, opening up new research directions for the laboratory.
After hearing his explanation, everyone nodded.
Pauli immediately said:
"This is the same as a probability wave property of a single atom, but a solid composed of a large number of atoms can produce mechanical vibration waves."
"Probability waves are also limited by the fluctuation equation."
Soon, these young people began to discuss fiercely.
The process was wonderful and everyone was enjoying it.
At this time, Heisenberg suddenly discovered that Professor Bruce had been sitting there, as if he was quietly thinking about something.
"I always feel that he is going to pretend not to be able to come up with some amazing theories."
(This chapter ends)