On the Zugzwang and the Delayed Quantum Zwischenzug in Quantum Mechanics

The birth of quantum mechanics in 1925-1926 may be described metaphorically as a scientific zugzwang (being forced to make a move on the chessboard): the old classical language could not longer explain atomic phenomena, yet every move into a new theory required the sacrifice of familiar concepts such as trajectory, visualization, determinism, and simple locality. Heisenberg´s matrix mechanics, Schrödinger´s wave mechanics, Born´s probability interpretation, and Bohr´s complementarity were powerful responses to this crisis. However, the many interpretations of quantum mechanics suggest that the mathematical formalism was accepted before a single agreed physical picture was found. This article proposes the metaphor of the delayed quantum zwischenzug (instead of playing the expected move, a new unexpected move changes the situation of the chessboard): a hidden, unexpected “in-between move” by Nature that may later reopen the interpretive game. Nicholson in 1912 proposed a transverse oscillation of the electron while orbiting around the proton. J.J. Thomson in 1913 postulated unknown attractive and repulsive forces inside of the atom. Quantum chromodynamics in 1964 discovered the composition of protons as three quarks with charges (+2/3e; -1/3e; +2/3e). We propose one delayed quantum zwischenzug, where that composite proton rotates with the light speed c and radiates the Planck action intensity h/4π with the speed v = αc (α is the Sommerfeld fine structure constant). The orbiting electron oscillates at the distance a0 (the Bohr radius) on the stable orbit. The Coulomb law is expressed through both attractive and repulsive forces as it was anticipated by J.J. Thomson in 1913. The orbiting electron can absorb and release a photon with mass mf. The electron screening by photons modifies the effective electrical charge of that orbiting electron as -1 e/n2. This screening effect influences both attractive and repulsive forces inside of that hydrogen between orbiting electron and the rotating composite proton. This delayed quantum zwischenzug can newly interpret the known mathematical formulae, e.g. the Rydberg energy. The article concludes that the “delayed quantum zwischenzug” is a useful physical picture that preserves quantum predictions while restoring some visualization of events in the inner architecture of the hydrogen.

Keywords: Attractive and Repulsive Forces Inside of Atom, Delayed Quantum Zwischenzug, Planck Action Intensity [Js steradian-1], Zugzwang in Quantum Mechanics.