- #1
osturk
- 11
- 0
Hi people,
Time-dependent perturbation theory allows for transitions to excited states, through a sinusoidal perturbation whose frequency is smaller than the energy difference between the states. (That is, [itex]P_{a \rightarrow b}=\frac{sin^{2}[(\omega_{0}-\omega)t/2]}{(\omega_{0}-\omega)^2}[/itex]. Although the transition probability falls rapidly, as incident light frequency falls below the natural frequency, it's still non-zero..)
So in the "rare" event of absorption of a photon with insufficient energy, where does the lacking energy come from? Can you comment on the energy conservation in such an event?
Time-dependent perturbation theory allows for transitions to excited states, through a sinusoidal perturbation whose frequency is smaller than the energy difference between the states. (That is, [itex]P_{a \rightarrow b}=\frac{sin^{2}[(\omega_{0}-\omega)t/2]}{(\omega_{0}-\omega)^2}[/itex]. Although the transition probability falls rapidly, as incident light frequency falls below the natural frequency, it's still non-zero..)
So in the "rare" event of absorption of a photon with insufficient energy, where does the lacking energy come from? Can you comment on the energy conservation in such an event?