User:Tohline/Appendix/CGH/QuantumTransitions

Speculation Regarding Quantum Transitions

The contents of this "Ramblings Appendix" chapter are pure speculation.

Digital Holography

When a ray of coherent, monochromatic light passes through a square aperture, a specific diffraction pattern is created. The same result is achieved by bouncing the light off of one side of a cube [serving as the square aperture]. In this manner, information about a localized structure (the aperture) is preserved in a (diffraction) pattern that formally extends to infinity. A hologram is created by "storing" the diffraction pattern (amplitude with no phase) as an image.

This process can be reversed. A ray of coherent, monochromatic light that bounces off of (or shines through) the holographic image will — at the appropriate distance from the hologram — display an image of the original compact aperture.

Note that, either way — that is, whether the aperture is being used to create the diffraction pattern or vise versa — the diffraction pattern/hologram can be viewed as a probability distribution.

This sounds suspiciously like an atomic transition: When an electron is bound to an atomic nucleus, information regarding its position/momentum is viewed as a wave function (probability distribution). When a photon (of the proper frequency) strikes the atom, it can react with the wave function in such a manner that it ejects the electron. That is to say, the result of the light passing through (bouncing off of) the wave function (hologram) is to form a compact entity (the electron).

See Also

• Tohline, J. E., (2008) Computing in Science & Engineering, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 84-85 — Where is My Digital Holographic Display? [ PDF ]
• Diffraction (Wikipedia)
• Various Google hits:
  • Single Slit Diffraction (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)
  • Diffraction from a Single Slit; Young's Experiment with Finite Slits (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)
  • Single Slit Diffraction Pattern of Light (University of British Columbia, Canada)
  • Fraunhofer Single Slit (Georgia State University)
• Hydrogen Atom (Wikipedia)

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