The Moga Hypothesis
By Dr. Joram Beda.
Abstract
The nature of Electromagnetic Waves was first postulated by James C. Maxwell. He described the propagation of the EM waves as an oscillating electric field generating an oscillating magnetic field, the magnetic field in turn generating an oscillating electric field, and so on. Although, the Maxwell equation has been more or less accepted as an established explanation of the nature of EM waves, the author suggests another model of the so called Electromagnetic waves and rather even prefers to call these waves as Electric waves instead. According to this Hypothesis, the so called EM wave is actually a vibrating electric field. When a charged particle vibrates, its electric field also starts vibrating such that at any point in space around the particle the electric potential changes which manifests as a radiation emanating from the particle. Though the electric field of say an electron is too weak to have any effect at large distances however when vibrating, the electric potential change at all points in space around it takes place within a short interval of time and the net effect is a noticeable as radiation. This is akin to Impulse where a certain amount of force when applied over a short interval of time has a net visible effect.
Main
Electromagnetic radiation was first postulated by James C. Maxwell and thereafter has generated considerable interest in the scientific community. One of the greatest problems of physics has been to unify all fundamental concepts of nature such as particle (entity), force, field, space, time, mass and energy. Though piecemeal unification has been achieved (for instance Einstein’s Special theory of Relativity), a convincing solution is yet to be attained. The advent of Quantum physics only aggravated the precarious state of affairs of science and gave rise to the concept of Wave–particle duality problem. So after James C. Maxwell had taken all pains to establish the wave nature of Electromagnetic radiation, Quantum physics postulated the particle nature of light! It may be possible that one of the reasons we are unable to integrate the various fundamental concepts in Physics is because the way we have chosen to look at it and then ‘concoct up’ mathematical derivations which actually complicate the concepts rather than simplify them. In that light the fist step in attaining that much intended unification in Physics we need to Simplify. The Moga hypothesis is a small step in that direction and simplifies the concept of electromagnetic radiation as against Maxwell’s explanation on the nature of electromagnetic radiation. Maxwell had had postulated that Electromagnetic radiation is a wave with both electric and magnetic field components that oscillate in a phase manner perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the waves. He based this concept of Electromagnetic radiation on his famous Maxwell’s equations which consists of:-
a) Gauss’s law which describes the relationship between an electric field and the generating magnetic field.
b) Gauss’s law for magnetism which states that there are no magnetic charges analogous to electric charges; instead magnetic field due to materials is generated by a configuration called dipole.
c) Faraday’s law describes how a time varying magnetic field induces an electric field.
d) Ampere’s law with Maxwell’s correction states that magnetic fields can be generated in two ways: by electric current and also by changing electric fields.
The Ampere’s law with Maxwell’s correction is the point of contention in this hypothesis. This law explains how electromagnetic radiation propagates in free space. That means a changing electric field creates a magnetic field in perpendicular direction (Faraday’s law) and a changing magnetic field creates an electric field perpendicular in direction. Thus, a self sustaining electromagnetic waves travel through space. Mathematically this has been shown as;
Where,
∇2 is Laplace operator and,
C is the speed of light in the medium
As against this, the quantum model of light postulates light as a wave. Well its easy way out to accept Wave-article duality principle as a fundamental property of the universe in order to explain the discrepancy between a wave concept and a particle concept. No wonder mathematical models have been developed to validate even this paradoxical concept of light! The Quantum model of light suggests that light is a stream of particles travelling at speed c and it’s quantized as given by the Planck-Einstein formula.
E = hv
Where, E is the energy of the Photon.
H is Planck’s constant.
v is the frequency of light.
This quantized nature of light was validated by none other than Albert Einstein himself in his 1905 explanation of the photoelectric effect.
Moga hypothesis aims to address this problem of paradoxical concept of light in a conceptual way and without recourse to any complicated mathematical formalism. After all it’s only when we have a clear insight into the nature of things, mathematical formulations can have better meaning in modern science.
Electromagnetic waves are produced by the motion of electrically charged particles which is explained as when an electron acquires energy, it becomes starts sort of vibrating by way of electron excitation (when it jumps to a higher energy level in the atom) and electron relaxation (when it jumps to lower energy level). Now, every electrically charged particle is surrounded by an Electric field within which it exerts a force on other charged particles. Electric charge is one of the fundamental concepts in this universe and another fundamental concept proposed here is “the entity”. It simply means ‘something that exists’. Every entity in this universe in order to have a property should exist and every entity has some or the other property. This entity extends from quarks to galaxies. Property itself is then a fundamental property of every entity. The electric field is a property of charged particles and it’s the sphere of influence in which the existence of the charged particle is felt. Thus, electric field is described as force per unit that would be experienced by a stationery charge q at any given location in the electric field;
E = F/q
Where,
F is the electric force experienced by the charged particle and,
q is the charge of the particle.
Further, deriving from Coulomb’s law the electric field E of a charge q with respect to a point charge at infinity is given as;
Where,
q is the charge of the particle creating the electric field.
r is the distance from the particle with charge q to the E-field evaluation point.
r is the unit vector pointing from the particle with charge q to the E-field.
evaluation point.
e0 is the electric constant.
The electric field is a vector quantity and theoretically extends to infinity. Now, let’s consider an electron at an initial energy state S1 in an atom. The electric field situation at any point in the electric field is then E1. When it gets excited, it is said to jump to a higher energy state S2, then the electric field at that point becomes E2 because the factor ‘r’ changes in these two situations (see above formula). Thus, a ‘vibrating’ electron creates varying electric field strength at each point in the electric field with a frequency at which the electron is vibrating. This is akin to a bobbing piece of cork on a pond surface creating ripples that travel away from the cork piece. This is a modest simplification to Maxwell’s description of light as electromagnetic radiation. Rather, light is actually just a ripple in the electric field created by a vibrating electron. This concept simply discards the need for a medium for light to travel because the electric field itself behaves like a medium for the ‘ripples’ to travel outwards of the electron. And these ripples will travel wherever the electric field of an electron extends. This deduction surely would contest the postulation that light is a particle as given by the quantum model of light. Quantum model suggests that when an electron is excited it ‘jumps’ to a higher energy state in the atom, then releases a photon and undergoes electron relaxation to go to initial lower energy state. This particular explanation to how an electron loses its energy to go back to the initial energy state is the crux of the problem in the Wave-particle duality. According Moga Hypothesis, the electron loses energy and goes back to its initial lower energy state level (the concept of energy state levels has been borrowed from Quantum physics though) just because it actually has done work in changing the property of the space around it self. Here the concept of Permittivity postulated by Maxwell comes handy. Permittivity is the measure of how much resistance is encountered when forming an electric field in a medium. He had calculated permittivity of free space as
e0 = 8.85… × 10−12 F/m
A parallel can be drawn to Newton’s first law that states that every body tends to maintain its state of rest or uniform motion. Simply put, every mass will tend to maintain its present state and any change will require energy. So in case of electric field and space or any medium, any change does require energy to be spent. The excited electron loses energy to create the ripples in the electric field rather than releasing a photon. And since energy is conserved (according law of conservation of energy), this energy is transferred as ripples in the electric field.
A natural question that arises here is that as to why when the electron has such a feeble (relatively) electric field, the light is a visibly felt phenomenon? Here a parallel can be drawn to the concept of impulse. Impulse can be illustrated as why a 200 lb weight can be rested on the top of a brick without breaking it while a karate chop does break it into two. What is crucial here is the time duration in which is force is applied to the brick. Impulse is a measure of force applied over time duration. Mathematically it’s given as;
J = F.∆t and
Therefore, J = m.∆v = ∆p
Impulse is equal to the change in momentum. Even if force is kept constant, impulse increase as the time duration over which the force is appiled decreases. Thus, impulse is an effective way force is exerted. So is the of light the electric field of an electron is relatively feeble but when it vibrates, the change in the electric field strength at any point in space in the electric field changes over a short period of time. The net effect at that point in the space is what manifests as light. As the frequency increases the time duration over which the change in electric field strength takes place approaches 0 such that the same property of a particular point in space in the electric field achieves double value. It’s as if the particular point in space has two different energy states at the same time. It’s impossible for any point in space to have two or more different values for the same property. No point in space can have the two different temperatures at the same time. However when temperature is fluctuating over a time period and if the time period reduces towards zero, a state can be achieved wherein it’s as though the point in space is having two different temperatures over a evaluation time duration. Another mental experiment to illustrate this issue is;
Roger is in town A where he is with his friend Victor. Samuel is in town B waiting to meet Roger. The towns are separated by a distance of 1 km. Suppose that Roger moves from Town A to town at a speed approaching the speed of light. The time by their watches, both Victor and Samuel will contest that they saw Roger at that very time of the day. Is this possible for a person or entity to exist at two places at the same time? This mental experiment simply illustrates the relation between time, distance (two points in space), energy and entity. For Victor to ‘appear’ in Town A and Town B almost at the same time, he has to spend energy. If both Victor and Samuel were to use stop watch to record the time they saw Roger (decreasing units of reference time), Victor will have to spend more and more energy. And as the time duration over which an event occurs, it’s as if space is contracts. In the above case, as speed (and hence energy) increases and time reduces, it appears that Town A and Town B are at the same point in space.
It follows naturally that since the total field strength of a charged particle will remain conserved and constant over any time period, the net effect of the vibrating electric field at any point in the electric field will increase only if the frequency of electron vibration increases. So we have the following deductions.
- The energy of light is directly proportional to the frequency of the vibrating electric field.
- Energy of light will depend on the permittivity of the medium. It’s not constant at a particular frequency as given by the Planck-Einstein formula. Since Permittivity is the resistance of a medium to forming an electric field, it also can be deduced as a resistance to change in electric field.
- Energy of light will also depend on the distance of the evaluation point from the vibrating electron, because electric field strength is inversely proportional to distance.
- Net electric field is constant for a vibrating electron.
- The vibration of an excited electron is not on a linear dimension. Rather it might be expansion and contraction. One cardinal rule of nature is that a system or a body will reflect some or many of the characteristics of its component units in some way or the other. The presumption that an excited electron expands and then contracts is deduced from the simple fact that any body upon heating expands. That means that individual atoms and molecules expand. Probably electrons cloud around the nucleus (Quantum model of atom) and so expansion and contraction happen in a spherical fashion.
- Although theoretically the spectrum of light or so called electromagnetic radiation can range from infinity to infinity, according Moga hypothesis the time factor over which there is a change in the electric field due to a vibrating electron can limit the lower limit of the spectrum (see concept of impulse above). A slow moving electron may not produce the effect called light. Similarly the upper limit is also defined by c, the speed of light. Since there is a distance factor and time factor involved, special theory of relativity will apply in the case of a vibrating electron also.
- Since, the electric field itself acts like a medium for light to travel light will not travel where the electric field of an electron doesn’t reach. This can be if the electric field has been distorted as in case by a magnetic field or another stronger electric field. This also explains why certain objects are opaque to light and why some are not.
So how does Moga hypothesis explain the photoelectric effect? Photoelectric effect has been projected as concrete proof that light is made up of particles. Let’s analyse why it’s not. The electric field of a charged particle is shown as electric field lines as shown in the figure below.
Theoretically, every energy interaction will occur along these lines. Now if light will not travel where there is no electric field (according this hypothesis) then how can light from one electron travel and excite another electron (photoelectric effect) when electric field lines of two electrons distort each other? It can gain be explained taking the concept of impulse as an analogy. A stationery electric field will have the field line arrangement as shown in the figure above but a vibrating electric field doesn’t go by the above configuration. An electric field alternating at a high frequency ‘cuts’ through the electric field lines to transfer energy into another electron. This interaction is not just a simple electrostatic repulsion because energy in the form of an alternating electric field (at very high frequency) takes on new properties. A simple example to illustrate this point is given below. Take a bar magnet and place it facing the like pole of an electromagnet. The electromagnet has been connected to rectified alternating current such that the poles don’t alter. The electromagnet’s magnetic field strength is altering proportional to the frequency of the alternating current. After sometime the bar magnet heats up. Why does this happen when the electromagnetic lines of the bar magnet will logically distort the field lines of the electromagnet? And the electromagnet should theoretically not be able to induce electricity in the bar magnet! The simple explanation is that the ‘alternating’ magnetic field sort of cuts into the field lines of the bar magnet and by way of induction heats up the bar magnet (eddy current).
Why and how does an electric or magnetic field alternating at high frequency ‘cuts’ into another electric and magnetic field respectively needs further investigation. One plausible explanation can be that at the point in space where another electron is experiencing the alternating electric field, the electric potential is changing at such a high rate (because of high frequency) that over a given time a ‘local electric potential difference’ is created. Say if one cycle of the vibration occurs over a time ∆t then over a time duration ∆t1 where ∆t1 >> ∆t, then the other electron is actually experiencing two different electric potentials over a time ∆t1. Thus, a local electric potential difference is generated by the vibrating electric field at that point in space. This may be the energy that is transferred into the other electron and the resultant photoelectric effect. It is apparent that the amount of energy transferred to an electron will be directly proportional to the frequency of the light because if we count ∆t1 as specified time duration and as ∆t reduces, the number of separate instances when the electron ‘experienced’ potential differences increases, i.e., the amount of energy transferred to the electron in an atom exposed to light increases over ∆t1. So over a period when the energy transferred equals the ionization energy of the atom, the atom ‘looses’ the electron.
From all these arguments it’s evident that light is definitely a wave and the particle model does not fit in the scheme of things. It only complicates the nature of things we are intending to unify. The so called particle behaviour of light can be explained in the wave model itself. Also the wave model forwarded by Maxwell has been out too complicated to achieve any unification with other concepts of physics. All entities in this universe do follow a simple rule – they have a tendency to interact and they interact through what is known as force – gravitational, electric, magnetic and nuclear. The space within which the force is exerted is the field. As the simple truth about this universe is that all entities interact, it’s not just 1+1=2 rule. Biological behaviour is essentially based on chemistry and all chemical reactions have an atomic level interaction. Mathematics cannot and will not ever be able to describe biological behaviour and similarly many things in science will have to be approached conceptually. The Moga hypothesis is just a conceptual approach to the nature of the so called ‘electromagnetic radiation’.
*electromagnetic radiation has been referred here as light because the Author doesn’t agree that light has a magnetic component.
Author is an Officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and now working as Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Government of Punjab, India.