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Register a new userThe Schrodinger picture and the zero-point radiation
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Dalibard, Dupont-Roc and Cohen-Tannoudji (J. Physique 43 (1982) 1617; 45 (1984) 637) used the Heisenberg picture to show that the atomic transitions, and the stability of the ground state, can only be explained by introducing radiation reaction and vacuum fluctuation forces. Here we consider the simple case of nonrelativistic charged harmonic oscillator, in one dimension, to investigate how to take into account the radiation reaction and vacuum fluctuation forces within the Schrodinger picture. We consider classical vacuum fields and large mass oscillator.
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Several authors have used the Heisenberg picture to show that the atomic transitions, the stability of the ground state and the position-momentum commutation relation [x,p]=ih, can only be explained by introducing radiation reaction and vacuum electromagnetic fluctuation forces. Here we consider the simple case of a nonrelativistic charged harmonic oscillator, in one dimension, to investigate how to take into account the radiation reaction and vacuum fluctuation forces within the Schrodinger picture. We consider the effects of both classical zero-point and thermal electromagnetic vacuum fields. We show that the zero-point electromagnetic fluctuations are dynamically related to the momentum operator p=-ih d/dx used in the Schrodinger picture. Consequently, the introduction of the zero-point electromagnetic fields in the vector potential A_x(t) used in the Schrodinger equation, generates ``double counting, as was shown recently by A.J. Faria et al. (Physics Letters A 305 (2002) 322). We explain, in details, how to avoid the ``double counting by introducing only the radiation reaction and the thermal electromagnetic fields into the Schrodinger equation.
We make a brief review of the Kramers escape rate theory for the probabilistic motion of a particle in a potential well U(x), and under the influence of classical fluctuation forces. The Kramers theory is extended in order to take into account the action of the thermal and zero-point random electromagnetic fields on a charged particle. The result is physically relevant because we get a non null escape rate over the potential barrier at low temperatures (T -> 0). It is found that, even if the mean energy is much smaller than the barrier height, the classical particle can escape from the potential well due to the action of the zero-point fluctuating fields. These stochastic effects can be used to give a classical interpretation to some quantum tunneling phenomena. Relevant experimental data are used to illustrate the theoretical results.
For the two-dimensional Schrodinger equation, the general form of the point transformations such that the result can be interpreted as a Schrodinger equation with effective (i.e. position dependent) mass is studied. A wide class of such models with different forms of mass function is obtained in this way. Starting from the solvable two-dimensional model, the variety of solvable partner models with effective mass can be built. Several illustrating examples not amenable to the conventional separation of variables are given.
The rotating reference system, two-point correlation functions, and energy density are used as the basis for investigating thermal effects observed by a detector rotating through random classical zero-point radiation. The RS consists of Frenet -Serret orthogonal tetrads where the rotating detector is at rest and has a constant acceleration vector. The CFs and the energy density at the rotating reference system should be periodic with rotation period because CF and energy density measurements is one of the tools the detector can use to justify the periodicity of its motion. The CFs have been calculated for both electromagnetic and massless scalar fields in two cases, with and without taking this periodicity into consideration. It turned out that only periodic CFs have some thermal features and particularly the Plancks factor with the temperature T= h w /k . Regarding to the energy density of both electromagnetic and massless scalar field it is shown that the detector rotating in the zero-point radiation observes not only this original zero-point radiation but, above that, also the radiation which would have been observed by an inertial detector in the thermal bath with the Planks spectrum at the temperature T. This effect is masked by factor 2/3(4 gamma^2-1) for the electromagnetic field and 2/9 (4 gamma ^2-1) for the massless scalar field, where the Lorentz factor gamma=(1 - v^2 / c^2)^(1/2). Appearance of these masking factors is connected with the fact that rotation is defined by two parameters, angular velocity w and the radius of rotation, in contrast with a uniformly accelerated linear motion which is defined by only one parameter, acceleration a. Our calculations involve classical point of view only and to the best of our knowledge these results have not been reported in quantum theory yet.
A huge discrepancy between the zero-point energy calculated from quantum theory and the observed quantity in the Universe has been one of the most illusive problems in physics. In order to examine the measurability of zero-point energy, we construct reference frames in a given measurement using observables. Careful and explicit construction of the reference frames surprisingly reveals that not only is the harmonic oscillator fluctuating at the ground level, but so is the reference frame when the measurement is realized. The argument is then extended to examine the measurability of vacuum energy for a quantized electromagnetic field, and it is shown that while zero-point energy calculated from quantum theory diverges to infinity, it is not measurable.
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