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ArticleOriginal scientific text

Title

On the quantal nature of the Coulomb field

Authors 1

Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Reymonta 4, 30-059 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

It is shown that the total electric charge, as determined from the Gauss law, is a quantum object. The argument is based on elementary considerations concerning the number of photons, which should be large in a classical situation.

Bibliography

  1. R.P. Feynman, QED, Princeton University Press, 1985.
  2. René Descartes, Regulae Ad Directionem Ingenii, I quote from the Polish translation, published by PWN, Warsaw 1958, page 9.
  3. W.B. Berestetsky, E.M. Lifshitz, and L.P. Pitaevsky, Relativistic Quantum Theory, Moscow 1968, in Russian.
  4. M. Alexander and P.G. Bergmann, Foundations of Physics 14, 925 (1984).
  5. A. Staruszkiewicz, an essay in honour of Yakir Aharonov, published in Quantum Coherence and Reality, ed. by J.S. Anandan and J.L. Safko, World Scientific, Singapore 1994, page 90.
  6. A. Staruszkiewicz, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 190, 354 (1989).
Banach Center Publications
1997/41/2
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Pages:
257-262
Main language of publication
English
Published
1997
Exact and natural sciences