(I suspect that this is now so far off topic that Jeff is going to cancel
our subscriptions :-). )

Wirt Atmar writes:

>While a first-order interpretation of introductory quantum mechanics would
>leave you with the impression that electrons can "live" only at those
>particular energy levels specified by the various quantum numbers associated
>with electron shell filling, that obviously isn't true. Transition times
>from
>one quantum state to another are not instantaneous, thus residency in
>indeterminate energy levels is not disallowed as an electron transitions
>from
>state to state. That residency in these "disallowed" continuous states is
>merely quite short.

The transition between the two energy states isn't an intermediate energy
level. It's a superposition of the two allowed states. That's not the
same thing as a numerically intermediate energy state; when probed, the
system will always be in one of the allowed states. The referenced paper
describes a method of computing the length of time that the superposition
will exist.

Still, I suppose that it's not a discontinuous process, just a
discontinuous change in an observable parameter value. I stand corrected.

-- Bruce


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