LANDE: Concerning “the historical origin of the dualistic interpretation” which I “have not realized:” I know of course of Einstein's light quanta in opposition to light waves. But I also know that there is a unitary quantum theory of radiation that has relegated the “photon” to the role of a quantum number attached to the periodic components of the continuous Maxwell field; thereby it has become unnecessary to attribute various ad hoc invented quantities—spin, interdependence of electric and magnetic properties of the photon—in order to save a particle picture dual to the wave picture of light. Light waves are real, matter waves are imaginary, in more than one sense.
REFERENCES
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W.
Duane
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M. Jammer, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Theory, McGraw‐Hill, New York, 1966;
F. Hund, Gesichte der Quantentheorie, BI, Mannheim, 1967.
3.
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© 1968 American Institute of Physics.
1968
American Institute of Physics
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