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ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION AND MATTER

So nally we have

dw = 2 | f V i |2 (Ef Ei )

(1.103)

This result is to rst order in V and is called Fermis Golden Rule. For some applications the rst order calculation is not precise enough, especially if it is zero, and we must go to second order. We will leave that calculation until we need its result in the subsection on photon scattering. The transition probability (per unit time) is related to the lifetime of a state as 1 = (1.104) w This can be seen as follows. If a system has a probability Pi (t) to be in the state i at time t, then a time dt later that probability will have changed by dPi = w Pi dt. We can integrate this relation to get Pi (t) = Pi (0) ew t . Using the denition of lifetime from Pi (t) = Pi (0) et/ we nd Equation (1.104). In using Equation (1.77) and Equation (1.78) we see that H0 consists of two parts, one for a charged particle in an electrostatic electric eld (the rst two terms) and one for the electromagnetic eld (the third term). These two parts in H0 are independent of each other. We assume that we know the eigenkets of each part so we can form the eigenkets of H0 as product eigenkets as appropriate for a Hamiltonian that consists of two independent parts. The product eigenkets are formed from the eigenkets A , B , of the charged particle part of H0 and the eigenkets k, of the electromagnetic part of H0 . The eigenvalues of H0 are the sum of the eigenvalues of the two parts. Consider as an example a system that decays from state A to state B under photon emission A B+ (1.105) The initial state is represented by A 0 and B k, or more compactly A; 0 and the nal state by B; k, . We will now apply this formalism to the case of spontaneous emission of a photon. This was rst discussed by Einstein in 1917 (having nished his theory of General Relativity) when he introduced his A and B coefcients that describe spontaneous and induced emission respectively. Examples of spontaneous emission can be found in atomic, molecular and nuclear physics. It plays an important role in black body radiation.

1.4 SPONTANEOUS EMISSION 1.4.1 First Order Result

We consider the process AB+ (1.106)