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Please give me a brief explanation as to how qm and qft describe and explain the energy level that exist in an atom.

I understand that in QM energy state is quantized but does not offer an explanation as to why, does qft solves this phenomenon?

Qmechanic
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TongMasterFlex
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  • As far as I am aware, nobody knows why energy comes in quantized amounts, that's just part of the way the world works, although there are many more people who know far more about QM and QFT than I do, on this website, so hopefully you get an answer I can learn from myself. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plancks_constant –  Nov 07 '15 at 22:17
  • Related for QM: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/39208/2451 , http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/65636/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Nov 08 '15 at 00:08
  • i found a post for the Reason for the discreteness in qm :) thanks for your reply also :) http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/39208/ – TongMasterFlex Nov 08 '15 at 15:18

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Feynman two pennies worth on why questions.

Why are the energy levels in atoms quantised? Because the universe is made as such.

A complete different point is how such description is achieved in quantum mechanics. The energy levels of a quantum system are defined as the spectrum of its hamiltonian: an entire area of mathematics deals with the relations between operators, their eigenstates and their spectra. Quantised energy levels, i. e. discrete spectrum, is often connected to bound eigenstates of the operator, therefore we interpret this aspect as bound physical states of atoms having discrete energy levels, though it needs not necessarily be so. In fact, scattering states (often unbounded) do present continuum spectrum, as many other physical systems do.

gented
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  • Watched the video, RPF being 100 percent honest on physics, it's a great intro link for your answer, (which I will steal for any similar questions:) –  Nov 07 '15 at 22:36
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how does quantum mechanics ... explain discrete energy levels of particles?

If you solve the Schrodinger equation, which is a law that can not be demonstrated, for the hydrogen atom or for any atom or molecule you will obtain discrete solutions, discrete energies. That is all. If we admit that the Schrodinger equation governs the world of atomic particles, and all experiments demonstrate it does, the rest is just math and those discrete energies result simply by solving the equation.

Energizer777
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