Neoclassicism challenges QED

Some physicists are questioning the necessity of quantum electrodynamics in quantum optics and perhaps elsewhere. A lively discussion on possible alternatives developed during the Third Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics at the end of June. The most widely discussed alternative was the neoclassical theory of Edwin Jaynes and his collaborators (Washington University in St. Louis). This theory regards the Maxwell equations as describing the radiation field while the Schrödinger equation is applied to the atoms. The charge and current sources of the Maxwell field are taken to be given by the corresponding probability densities of wave mechanics. Jaynes contends that these nonlinear equations describe physical phenomena better than has been appreciated in earlier times.

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