Module 1 : Quantum Mechanics

Chapter 1 : Prelude to Quantum theory

Prelude to Quantum theory

Nineteenth century saw the climax of the achievements of classical physics: laws of mechanics,
electromagnetism, and statistical mechanics provide a very good description of many macroscopic
properties.
(a) Newtonian mechanics: The dynamics of a particle of mass
is described by Newton's second law

(1.1)

where

is the force acting on ith particle due to jth particle. Newton's second law that action and

reaction are equal and opposite leads to the conservation of momentum,

(1.2)

The isotropy of space, or

being proportional to

leads to the conservation of angular

momentum,
(1.3)
One also has the result that for conservative forces for which work done on a closed path vanishes, the total
energy is constant,
(1.4)

For gravitational interaction, one has

(1.5)

The force proportional to

is one of the most beautiful forms of interaction. Going over to the centre of

mass frame,
(1.6)

one gets

(1.7)

This equation provides a very good description of the dynamics of planets and satellites. In particular we
note that Runge-Lenz vector

is a constant,

(1.8)

Taking a scalar product with

, it leads to

(1.9)

where
is the total energy, which implies that we have closed orbits for bound planets with
. For the source of gravitational force being a mass distribution with mass density
negative
, one gets for the gravitational potential

(1.10)

For

we can expand in powers of

to obtain

(1.11)

This leads to

(1.12)

which may be regarded as a multi-pole expansion of the potential. For an ellipsoidal earth with
rotational symmetry,

(1.13)

one obtains for the potential in Eq.(1.11),

(1.14)

correct to order
, where we have included the term coming from the centrifugal force.
Taking the potential to be constant on the surface, it leads to the results

(1.15)
for the bulge on the surface of the earth and the difference in the gravitational acceleration at

and

. It may also be noted that the earth has an extra observed bulge of about 80 m in the southern
hemisphere.
(b) Electromagnetic fields and interaction: The Maxwell's equations govern the properties of
electromagnetic fields. They are

(1.16)

The Lorentz force is (in MKS and CGS units),

(1.17)
The fields are expressed in terms of scalar and vector potentials, as

(1.18)

or MKS and CGS units.

(c) Statistical mechanics: Supplement the basic laws of mechanics and electromagnetism, with statistical
mechanics to describe the properties of macroscopic bodies. Statistical mechanics is the underlying
microscopic theory of thermodynamics and kinetic theory.
The situation appeared to be very satisfying. However, there were some irritations and more irritations
started coming in very rapidly around the turn of the century. One was the non-invariance of of
electromagnetic equations under Galilean transformations. Related problem was the invariance of the speed
of light in different inertial frames. Another was the observation of discrete lines in atomic spectra. Then
there was a deluge of new observations requiring fundamental changes in our ideas about the physical
world. Though the classical laws continued to be useful, they are to be regarded as certain approximations
to the more general fundamental laws of nature.