Bruce asks:

> Wirt Atmar writes:
>
>  >If all of this is true, this newly measured result perhaps shouldn't be
all
>  >that unexpected. Every physical process is a continuous event. There are
no
>  >discontinuities [or] step functions... in nature...
>
>  Hmm... what about quantum state changes? (Discontinuities in the
>  energetic states of atoms make lasers possible, for example.)

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.

Indeed, the currency of exchange for the braking/accelerating energies as the
electron travels from state to state (or metastable state) over a finite time
are exactly the photons that power the laser (or any other similar
light-emitting/light absorbing process). All chemical reactions are, of
course, electronic reactions, an exchange of electronic states between atoms.
The very quickest of these reactions react on a femtosecond scale. In that
regard, the following paper looks promising as to a further
explanation/exploration of the process that occurs during those transitions,
although I just found it and haven't had time to read it carefully:

http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/schwartz/schwartz_pubs/JCP.104.5942.1996

.pdf

Wirt Atmar

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