Breaking Paradigms in Atomic and Molecular Physics - Hardcover

The book presents the following counterintuitive theoretical results breaking several paradigms of quantum mechanics and providing alternative interpretations of some important phenomena in atomic and molecular physics. 1) Singular solutions of the Schroedinger and Dirac equations should not have been always rejected: they can explain the experimental high-energy tail of the linear momentum distribution in the ground state of hydrogenic atoms. Application: a unique way to test intimate details of the nuclear structure by performing atomic (rather than nuclear) experiments and calculations. 2) Charge exchange is not really an inherently quantal phenomenon, but rather has classical roots. Application: continuum lowering in plasmas. 3) The most challenging problem of classical physics that led to the development of quantum mechanics - the failure to explain the stability of atoms - can be solved within a classical formalism that has its roots in Dirac's works. The underlying physics can be interpreted as a non-Einsteinian time dilation. 4) In two-electron atoms/ions, the spin-spin interaction (singular in its nature), usually considered unimportant, makes a significant contribution to the binding energy. 5) In magnetized plasmas the standard Inglis-Teller concept, concerning the number of observed lines in spectral series of hydrogen, breaks down. Application: new plasma diagnostic. 6) Extrema in transition energies of molecules/quasimiolecules can result in dips (rather than usually considered satellites) within spectral lines. Application: the experimental determination of rates of charge exchange between multicharged ions - important for magnetic fusion in Tokamaks, for population inversion in the soft x-ray and VUV ranges, for ion storage devices, and for astrophysics.

The book presents counterintuitive theoretical results, which were published in reputable refereed journals by the book's author and by others. These fundamental results break several paradigms of quantum mechanics and provide alternative interpretations of some important phenomena in atomic and molecular physics. First, it is shown that singular solutions of the Schr dinger and Dirac equations should not have been always rejected: they can be legitimate and necessary for explaining some experimental results, e.g., the high-energy tail of the linear momentum distribution in the ground state of hydrogenic atoms. Second, it is demonstrated that charge exchange is not really an inherently quantal phenomenon, but rather has classical roots. This result is applied to the problem of continuum lowering in plasmas. Third, it is shown that the most challenging problem of classical physics that led to the development of quantum mechanics the failure to explain the stability of atoms can be actually solved within a classical formalism from first principles: the fall of atomic electrons on the nucleus due to the radiative loss of the energy, which seemed to be classically unavoidable, does not occur within Dirac's generalized Hamiltonian dynamics applied to atomic physics. The underlying physics can be interpreted as a non-Einsteinian time dilation. Fourth, it is demonstrated that in two-electron atoms or ions, the spin spin interaction, which was usually considered as an unimportant correction to the binding energy, actually makes a significant contribution to the binding energy if the singular nature of this interaction is properly taken into account.