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Mr Dirac, Note on the Doppler principle

Note on the Doppler principle and Bohr's frequency

condition.

By P. A. M. DIRAC, St John's College. (Communicated by

Mr R. H. FOWLER).

[Received 19 May. Read 14 July 1924.]

When an atomic system emits or absorbs radiation, the frequency of the radiation is connected with the change of energy of
the system by Bohr's frequency condition 82? = hv. This equation
is usually applied to the transition of an atom from one stationary
state to another, the frequency of the radiation being measured in
a frame of reference in which the atom as a whole is at rest, both
before and after the transition. It has been pointed out by Bohr *
that difficulties arise when no natural frame of reference presents
itself in which to measure the frequency, which is the case for nonisolated systems, or even for isolated systems when the process of
radiation is connected with a change of momentum.
The question has been considered by Schrodinger j" on the basis
of Einstein's hypothesis that an emitted quantum of energy hv
always carries off an amount of momentum . Schrodinger
assumes that the frequency condition holds "for all frames of
reference, and deduces the following equation for the frequency in
any frame of reference, which he calls a generalisation of the
Doppler principle:
(c vx cos #x c v2 cos #2| i
2

Vc*-vv22
Here v is the frequency in a frame of reference in which the velocities
of the emitting atom before and after the process are vx and v2 in
directions that make angles d1 and 62 with that of the radiation,
and v0 is a constant. If, however, we eliminate v2 and 92 by means
of the relations connecting them with vx and 0X given by Schrodinger,
then the following equation is obtained:
v =v

c i\ cos 0j

where v is a constant. This shows that the law of transformation

of v is the same as that given by the ordinary Doppler principle
for a source moving with velocity vx (and therefore the same as
for a source moving with any velocity). Hence, provided the
* Camb. Phil. Soc. Proc. (Supplement), "On the Applications of the Quantum
Theorv to Atomic Structure," pp. 28, 32.
t Phys. Zeits. 23, p. 301 (1922).

and Bohr's frequency condition

433

emitted radiation is entirely directed, consistent results will be

obtained whichever frame of reference is used for applying the
frequency condition.
This conclusion may be proved more directly by showing that
the frequency condition can be put in the form of a vector equation
in four-dimensional space-time. The momentum of the system
multiplied by c and the energy form the space and time components
of a vector Ei (i = 1 ... 4). The change in this vector during the
transition process is another vector 8E* whose space and time
components are equal, so that its direction in space-time is the
same as that of the radiation. We now introduce the "frequency
vector" for plane waves defined by
c d<f>
where cf> is the phase angle of the wave at any point of space-time.
This vector has its space and time components both equal to v,
and its space component is in the reverse direction to that of the
radiation, so that the associated contravariant vector
vl =

%rgl dxk
lies in the direction of the radiation. Hence if
then
SE* = hu*
which is the required vector equation.