Re: the quantum hypothesis and blackbody radiation
- From: vagelford@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 22:15:04 +0000 (UTC)
>On the other hand, when considering radation, it's fundamental degrees
>of freedom are the oscillation amplitudes associated to different modes
>that come about as solutions of Maxwell's equations. So it is natural
>to ask what is the distribution of energy between these modes in
>equilibrium at a temperature. However, since the radiation modes are
>decoupled, there will be no thermalization to spread the energy between
>the radiation modes. In other words, if EM radiation were contained in
>a cavity with perfectly reflecting walls, the radiation will never
>reach equilibrium.
>One solution is to introduce a mediator. The mediator will interact
>with all the radiation modes, while the radiation modes themselves are
>still decoupled, and will act as a thermalization agent. At first
>glance, it may seem that different mediators will produce different
>equilibrium states, which will be dictated by the absorption and
>emission properties of the mediator. However, experimentally, it is
>found that the equilibrium energy distribution between the radiation
>modes depends only on temperature and not on the typer of mediator used
>(up to small corrections).
This reminds me of a question I had. Ok, if you have a radiation
field you need a mediator to thermalize the radiation modes, but
if you have a medium, lets say a gas, with no radiation field a
priori, then what is the mechanism that produces the thermal
radiation.
.
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