From: John Denker
Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:49 PM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: [Phys-l] coherent state movies (was: quantum misconception #0003)
Hi Folks --
I cobbled up some movies showing the behavior of quantum mechanical
coherent states, aka Glauber states. I also wrote up a few words of
explanation. http://www.av8n.com/physics/glauber-states.htm
Among other things, this shows how the correspondence principle applies,
namely the correspondence between quantum oscillators and classical
oscillators.
It also makes the point that /not/ everything is quantized, /not/ all
waves are quantized, /not/ all states are discrete, et cetera. We
need to do more to dispel misconceptions about this ... or, better,
*prevent* misconceptions.