Abstract

Einstein derived his coefficients of induced and spontaneous emission by assuming that electromagnetic radiation is directional, having the form of ?needle radiation?. That idea is extended here and shown to suggest that stimulated emission should be described as a three-body problem; nucleus, electron, and photon. The photon is conceived of as having a central core with localized momentum surrounded laterally by a continuous sinusoidal field; and stimulated emission is due to the coupling of its field with the bound electrons of nearby molecules. Coupling is directly proportional to the density of oscillators so that starlight is predicted to have a different microscopic structure than artificial light. Non-commutation does not occur in the three body model of emission because the conservation of momentum fixes the order of observables. This allows the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics to be assigned a more precise physical interpretation. Evidence for the three body model is described at the macroscopic level by using high speed photographs of spark discharges. It is hypothesized that all forces; gravitational, electroweak, and nuclear; have independent structure and are thus in agreement with the three body model.