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From: Shinbrot.WBST@Xerox.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Nature of Photons
Message-ID: <12330@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Apr-84 14:48:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12330
Posted: Mon Apr 16 14:48:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Apr-84 01:38:16 EST
Lines: 30

D. Bartholomew,

re. lasers requiring bosons,

There are 3 types or statistics governing particles and their behavior.

Bose-Einstein:  These particles 'like' to occupy the same state.  They
do more, therefore, than resonate when dumped into a cavity together -
they tend to re-enforce one another when appropriately "pumped."  

Maxwell-Boltzmann:  These particles are indifferent to other particles'
states.  Air is a common example of this.  They can be made to resonate
in a cavity, but cannot lase.  That is, although pre-existing particles
may move a wave back and forth within a cavity, they do so by banging
into each other and by and large moving each other in the appropriate
direction by virtue of the fact that the particles moving in
inappropriate directions die out.  

Fermi-Dirac:  These particles (degeneracy aside, please) will not occupy
the same state.  They cannot even be made to resonate, therefore, much
less re-enforce each other's wave.

In short the former category encompasses the particles which predispose
themselves to 'enforced resonance'.  Since they (photons) are emitted by
atoms hanging about in the cavity (or matrix - remember ruby lasers?) at
frequency (recall that they 'like' to be in the same state as their
mates) that the cavity happens to be designed around, they are doubly
appropriate as laser constituents.

-Troy Shinbrot