Dialog on dualism
DOI: 10.1063/1.3035103
LANDE: Concerning “the historical origin of the dualistic interpretation” which I “have not realized:” I know of course of Einstein’s light quanta in opposition to light waves. But I also know that there is a unitary quantum theory of radiation that has relegated the “photon” to the role of a quantum number attached to the periodic components of the continuous Maxwell field; thereby it has become unnecessary to attribute various ad hoc invented quantities—spin, interdependence of electric and magnetic properties of the photon—in order to save a particle picture dual to the wave picture of light. Light waves are real, matter waves are imaginary, in more than one sense.
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References
1. W. Duane, “The transfer in quanta of radiation momentum in matter,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S., 9, 158 (1923).
2. M. Jammer, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Theory, McGraw‐Hill, New York, 1966;
F. Hund, Gesichte der Quantentheorie, BI, Mannheim, 1967.3. M. Bunge, Brit. J. Phil. Sci., 18, 265 (1967).https://doi.org/BJPIA5
More about the authors
Alfred Landé, Ohio State University.
Max Born, University of Edinburgh (retired).
Walter Biem, Institute for Neutron Physics of the Kernforschungsanlage Jülich.
