User:Johnjbarton/sandbox/introduction to quantum mechanics: Difference between revisions

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=== Quantum radiation, quantum fields ===

{{main | History of quantum field theory}}

In 1923 [[Compton scattering| Compton]] demonstrated that the Planck-Einstein energy quanta from light also had momentum; three years later the "energy quanta" got a new name "[[photon]]"<ref name="photon-named">.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201212/physicshistory.cfm|title=December 18, 1926: Gilbert Lewis coins "photon" in letter to Nature| website=www.aps.org|language=en|access-date=2019-03-09}}</ref> Despite its role in almost all stages of the quantum revolution, no explicit model for light quanta existed until 1927 when [[Paul Dirac]] began work on a quantum theory of radiation<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1927-03-01 |title=The quantum theory of the emission and absorption of radiation |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.1927.0039 |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character |language=en |volume=114 |issue=767 |pages=243–265 |doi=10.1098/rspa.1927.0039 |issn=0950-1207}}</ref> that became [[quantum electrodynamics]]. Over the following decades this work evolved into [[quantum field theory]], the basis for modern [[quantum optics]] and [[particle physics]].