Re: QM without "photons" or Schrödinger's wave equation

Ray Tomes wrote:
> FrediFizzx wrote:
> > Perhaps if we believe in the Casimir effect, EMR would have to be
> > quantised.
>
> The Casimir effect only requires that in a small space some frequencies
> are stable due to non-cancellation and others are not due to
> cancellation. This does not require quantisation of the field.

That is incorrect. In addition to requiring that low-frequency modes
be suppressed in the space between two conducting plates (which indeed
does not require field quantization), the derivation of the Casimir
effect also requires that a normal mode of frequency f have a zero
point energy of hf/2, i.e., one-half of a quantum. One could postulate
a semiclassical vacuum with this zero point energy in an attempt to
avoid field quantization, but that semiclassical model fails in
other respects. The simplest hypothesis that provides for the correct
zero-point energy and in addition explains all the other data (such as
the blackbody radiation spectrum) is that each normal mode behaves as
a quantum harmonic oscillator, i.e., that the field is quantized.

//cmh

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