Analysis of orbital decay time for the classical hydrogen atom interacting with circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation.
Here we show that a wide range of states of phases and amplitudes exist for a circularly polarized (CP) plane wave to act on a classical hydrogen model to achieve infinite times of stability (i.e., no orbital decay due to radiation reaction effects). An analytic solution is first deduced to show this effect for circular orbits in the nonrelativistic approximation. We then use this analytic result to help provide insight into detailed simulation investigations of deviations from these idealistic conditions. By changing the phase of the CP wave, the time t(d) when orbital decay sets in can be made to vary enormously. The patterns of this behavior are examined here and analyzed in physical terms for the underlying but rather unintuitive reasons for these nonlinear effects. We speculate that most of these effects can be generalized to analogous elliptical orbital conditions with a specific infinite set of CP waves present. The paper ends by briefly considering multiple CP plane waves acting on the classical hydrogen atom in an initial circular orbital state, resulting in "jump-like" and "diffusion-like" orbital motions for this highly nonlinear system. These simple examples reveal the possibility of very rich and complex patterns that occur when a wide spectrum of radiation acts on this classical hydrogen system.
Department of Manufacturing Engineering, 15 St. Mary's Street, Boston University, Brookline, Massachusetts 02446, USA.
Daniel C
DC
Cole
Yi
Y
Zou