Biography
Biography: Eugene Oks
Abstract
The talk 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 Schrödinger 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. This is 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. It also has application in continuum lowering in plasmas. 3) The most challenging problem of classical physics that led to the development of quantum mechanics is the failure to explain the stability of atoms which can be solved within a classical formalism that has its roots in Dirac’s works. The result is the appearance of classical non-radiating states coinciding with the corresponding quantal stationary states. The underlying physics can be interpreted as a non-Einsteinian time dilation. It is also an advanced classical description of electronic degrees of freedom in chemical physics.