Every book or article I have read so far, explains the Auger electron phenomena like a "transfer" of energy that comes from another electron that decays to a lower level. But none of the bibliography specifies what kind of transference it's involved or how this energy is released from one electron to the other. It might be difficult to explain, but I would like to know the reasons behind this process.
I also know that no photon is involved in this effect.
What do you think?
I can confirm that "normal" literature on atomic physics do not go into the details on how to actually calculate transition rates for the Auger effect. The issue ist that the framework of quantum mechanics does not allow the correct treatment of this kind of radiation-less transition. The correct treatment is made possible by QED, however, which is a quantum field theory. In a usual perturbative treatment, the Auger effect can then be calculated and interpreted as the exchange of a virtual photon (virtual = never exists as an asymptotic state) between two electrons, and is in principle "just another" scattering process.
A good reading to start with is: "D. Chattarji: The Theory of Auger Transitions" from 1976.
Thank you very much Oliver.
The answer that the normal quantum theory gives wasn't enough for me.
I didn't know the existence of virtual photons, it sounds pretty interesting, I'm going to take a look to that book.
Best wishes and thank you again!
Hi Herman,
well: virtual photons don't really exist, that's why they are called virtual photons. But in the perturbative treatment of scattering or transition processes, the formalism looks as if a virtual quantum (here: photon) would be exchanged between the two interacting particles.
The underlying reason why quantum mechanics (unlike quantum field theory) alone is not enough here has to do with the fact that the quantum-mechanical formalism simply does not correctly take energy exchange between the quantum system under consideration (electron) with the perturbation potential (radiation field) into account. In other words: if an energy transfer occurs from A (quantum system under consideration) to B (environment, radiation field, ...), only the change in A is considered, but not in B.
E.g. in quantum mechanics, transition processes are calculated by treating the electromagnetic field as a classical external (periodic) potential perturbatively. But it fails to take into account the energy loss of the field itself, and also spontaneous (as opposed to induced) transitions cannot be calculated. Whenever you are not interested in the environmental energy change itself, that's fine. But of course, energy conservation implies that for a correct and complete treatment of the energy change of the field itself, you must quantize it, hence QED.
The Auger effect includes a transfer of energy, so to calculate it correctly, you need quantum field theory, hence QED.
Best regards
Oliver
Thank you very much for taking a little of your time to clue me in.
Best regards,
Herman
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