Re: The time it takes to emit one photon

nightlight wrote:

>>If the wind is perfectly homogenous and all
>>trees have exactly the same strength, then all trees
>>will either stand together or fall down together.
>
>
> When do you have all the electrons of a cathode tube or in a solid of
> an avalanche diode (semiconductor detector) exactly same distributed
> perfectly homogeneously? The vacuum fluctuations preclude this
> "absolutely identical" and "homogeneous" state even in principle. They
> are exactly sufficient (within resonant absorption mechanism and
> semi-classical theory) to account quantitatively for the discrete and
> pointlike apparence of photoeffect. That is all a very very old hat
> (cf. [2] on history and evolution of this problem).

Modern experimental techniques allow one to emit a single photon
of visible light at a time. The photon has energy of a few
electron-volts. This is about the same energy as required to
excite one active center on the scintillating screen. If (according to
your theory) we assume that the photon's energy is being spread
over extended
wave, then the only way the scintillating center can be excited is
if the wave somehow collapses.

If we continue our analogy with the wind,
then we arrive to a very paradoxical situation: The total energy
contained in the wind is just enough to knock down just one tree.
This energy is spread over many miles. The total wind's energy around
each tree is many orders of magnitude lower than the energy required to
unroot the tree. If you insists that even in this case a tree can be
knocked down, then it means that the tree strength can vary by
many orders of magnitude. This assumption may look plausible for
trees, as sometimes
an old tree can fall down without any wind at all. But such a
variation of properties is difficult to imagine for scintillating
centers on the screen. Moreover, in your theory there is nothing
to forbid many trees to fall down simultaneously. However, in the
case of one photon interacting with the screen, no more than one
active center gets excited. Therefore, your theory gets a chance
for survival only if at some point in time
the full wind's strength gets concentrated in the neighborhood
of a single tree. What is the mechanism of this sudden collapse?
I don't think any wave theory permits that.

Eugene.

.

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