The Blackbody Radiation Spectrum Follows from Zero-Point Radiation and the Structure of Relativistic Spacetime in Classical Physics

Abstract

The analysis of this article is entirely within classical physics. Any attempt to describe nature within classical physics requires the presence of Lorentz-invariant classical electromagnetic zero-point radiation so as to account for the Casimir forces between parallel conducting plates at low temperatures. Furthermore, conformal symmetry carries solutions of Maxwell's equations into solutions. In an inertial frame, conformal symmetry leaves zero-point radiation invariant and does not connect it to non-zero-temperature; time-dilating conformal transformations carry the Lorentz-invariant zero-point radiation spectrum into zero-point radiation and carry the thermal radiation spectrum at non-zero temperature into thermal radiation at a different non-zero-temperature. However, in a non-inertial frame, a time-dilating conformal transformation carries classical zero-point radiation into thermal radiation at a finite non-zero-temperature. By taking the no-acceleration limit, one can obtain the Planck radiation spectrum for blackbody radiation in an inertial frame from the thermal radiation spectrum in an accelerating frame. Here this connection between zero-point radiation and thermal radiation is illustrated for a scalar radiation field in a Rindler frame undergoing relativistic uniform proper acceleration through flat spacetime in two spacetime dimensions. The analysis indicates that the Planck radiation spectrum for thermal radiation follows from zero-point radiation and the structure of relativistic spacetime in classical physics.

21 pages

References in corpus (3)

• Blackbody Radiation and the Scaling Symmetry of Relativistic Classical Electron Theory with Classical Electromagnetic Zero-Point Radiation
• Derivation of the Planck Spectrum for Relativistic Classical Scalar Radiation from Thermal Equilibrium in an Accelerating Frame
• Classical Physics of Thermal Scalar Radiation in Two Spacetime Dimensions

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• Is Planck's Constant h a "Quantum" Constant? An Alternative Classical Interpretation
• Scaling, Scattering, and Blackbody Radiation in Classical Physics
• Contrasting Classical and Quantum Vacuum States in Non-Inertial Frames
• Duane -- Hunt relation improved
• Derivations of the Planck Blackbody Spectrum from Thermodynamic Ideas in Classical Physics with Classical Zero-Point Radiation
• Stochastic electrodynamics and the interpretation of quantum theory