Hints of the Photonic Nature of the Electromagnetic Fields in Classical Electrodynamics

Abstract

The electromagnetic fields of a long dipole working without dispersive and dissipative losses are analyzed in the frequency domains. The dipole produces radiation in bursts of duration T/2 where T is the period of oscillation. The parameter studied in this paper is the energy, U, dissipated in a single burst of radiation of duration T/2. We have studied how U vary as a function of the charge associated with the current in the dipole and the ratio of the length of the dipole and its radius. We have observed a remarkable result when this ratio is equal to the ratio of the radius of the universe to the Bohr radius. Our results, based purely on the classical electrodynamics and general relativity, show that, as the magnitude of the oscillating charge (as defined by the root mean square) reduces to the electronic charge, the energy dissipated in a single burst of radiation reduces to hv, where v is the frequency of oscillation and h is the Planck constant. The importance of this finding is discussed. In particular, the results show that the existence of a minimum free charge in nature, i.e., electronic charge, is a direct consequence of the photonic nature of the electromagnetic fields. Furthermore, the presented findings allow to derive for the first time an expression for the vacuum energy density of the universe in terms of the other fundamental constants in nature, the prediction of which is consistent with experimental observations. This equation, which combines the vacuum energy, electronic charge and mass, speed of light, gravitational constant and Planck constant, creates a link between classical field theories (i.e., classical electrodynamics and general relativity) and quantum mechanics.