Informal discussion. The title and abstract below are from this year's Lindau meeting (June),
http://www.lindau-nobel.org/LaureateDetails.AxCMS?UserID=6822
where Nobel laureates meet with selected students.
"The image of lightwaves as oscillating electromagnetic fields explains
virtually all the phenomena of traditional optics. An awareness that these
waves are somehow subdivided into quanta has however been with us since
the early 20th century. The naive effort to view light quanta as ordinary
particles led quickly to a succession of contradictions and paradoxes that
could only be resolved by the development of the broader theory of the
wave-mechanical behavior of all varieties of particles.
The application of the same principles to electromagnetic theory led to
the development of the subject now called quantum electrodynamics. It is
an enormously versatile theory which comprehends a vast range of
Interesting and occasionally strange ways in which light quanta can
behave. We shall discuss some of these behaviors, noting that they are now
seen as common to fields oscillating at all frequencies from radio waves
to gamma rays. A recent development has been the use of standing-wave
beams of light to bind atoms in loose lattice structures that resemble
crystals but are remarkably adjustable in their properties. A more richly
detailed science of optics is now emerging from the more explicit study of
quanta and their behavior."
