Quantum

quantum

In physics, a discrete natural unit, or packet, of energy, charge, angular momentum, or other physical property. Light, for example, which appears in some respects as a continuous electromagnetic wave, on the submicroscopic level is emitted and absorbed in discrete amounts, or quanta; for light of a given wavelength, the magnitude of all the quanta emitted or absorbed is the same in both energy and momentum. These particlelike packets of light are called photons, a term also applicable to quanta of other forms of electromagnetic energy such as X rays and gamma rays. Submicroscopic mechanical vibrations in the layers of atoms comprising crystals also give up or take on energy and momentum in quanta called phonons. See also quantum mechanics.

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Quantum (physics)

A term characterizing an excitation in a wave or field, connoting fundamental particlelike properties such as energy or mass, momentum, and angular momentum for this excitation. In general, any field or wave equation that is quantized, including systems already treated in quantum mechanics that are second-quantized, leads to a particle interpretation for the excitations which are called quanta of the field. This term historically was first applied to indivisible amounts of electromagnetic, or light, energy usually referred to as photons. The photon, or quantum of the electromagnetic field, is a massless particle, best interpreted as such by quantizing Maxwell's equations. Analogously, the electron can be said to be the quantum of the Dirac field through second quantization of the Dirac equation, which also leads to the prediction of the existence of the positron as another quantum of this field with the same mass but with a charge opposite to that of the electron. In similar fashion, quantization of the gravitational field equations suggests the existence of the graviton. The pi meson or pion was theoretically predicted as the quantum of the nuclear force field. Another quantum is the quantized lattice vibration, or phonon, which can be interpreted as a quantized sound wave since it travels through a quantum solid or fluid, or through nuclear matter, in the same manner as sound goes through air.

The use of quantum as an adjective (quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics) implies that the particular subject is to be treated according to the modern rules that have evolved for quantized systems. See Elementary particle, Gravitation, Graviton, Maxwell's equations, Meson, Phonon, Photon, Quantum electrodynamics, Quantum field theory, Quantum mechanics

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quantum - time slice