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cragar
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lets say i have a hydrogen atom and i shoot a photon at it but the photon does not have enough energy to kick the electron to the next energy level , does the electron absorb the photon and if it does what happens ?
So the photon gets absorbed and re-emitted , but i thought scattering was differentAntiphon said:The photon either goes by unaffected or is absorbed and re-radiated by the elastic scattering process. This is exactly what happens when a photon hits the window. 4% of the time it scatters back away from the window. No electronic transitions (in glass anyway.)
Antiphon said:The photon either goes by unaffected or is absorbed and reradiated by the elastic scattering process. This is exactly what happens when a photon hits the window. 4% of the time it scatters back away from the window. No electronic transitions (in glass anyway.)
johng23 said:Sure, but is the picture of the electron oscillating in the E-field accurate? Because in that case, an observer in a number of orientations with respect to the electron could see a component of acceleration, therefore there must be a radiated field from the electron to the observer. Doesn't this require multiple photons to be scattered, when only one went in?
cragar said:lets say i have a laser that is shining down , and then i shoot a beam of neon
atoms horizontally through the laser beam , the laser does not have enough energy to excite the neon atom to the next energy level , when the neon atom absorbs the photon , does the momentum of the photon transfer to the neon atom , I think it would . and will i get a diffraction pattern from the neon atoms , but if the laser has enough energy to kick the neon atom to the next excited state will we see a diffraction pattern ,
Born2bwire said:For the same reason that the electron's accelerating orbit in the atomic orbital does not emit light, probably.
johng23 said:So let's see if I follow:
So in an atomic orbital, the electron is in an eigenstate, so there is no actual evolution of the system in time. And in the case of a perturbation, the wavefunctions are perturbed but we again say the electron is in an eigenstate and has no measurable time dependence, thus does not accelerate.
But when you bring large numbers of photons into it, do you come to agreement with the classical picture because, in these cases, it's no longer a simple perturbation and the electron DOES accelerate? Or in the quantum mechanical view, is it that the electron never accelerates at all, but the changing-Hamiltonian-perturbed-wavefunction picture can completely describe the observed radiation for any number of incident photons?
A photon is a fundamental particle of light that carries energy and has zero mass.
A hydrogen atom can absorb or emit photons when its electrons change energy levels. This process is known as electronic transitions.
The energy of a photon is directly proportional to its frequency and inversely proportional to its wavelength. This relationship is described by the equation E=hf, where E is energy, h is Planck's constant, and f is frequency.
Photons cannot be created or destroyed, but they can be converted into other forms of energy.
Photons are important in understanding the structure of atoms because they provide information about the energy levels and electronic transitions of atoms. This information can help us understand the behavior and properties of matter at the atomic level.