Rayleigh-Jeans Law Development

 The equilibrium of standing wave electromagnetic radiation in a cubic cavity of

dimension L must meet the condition:

Demonstration
The standing electromagnetic waves in a cavity that is in balance with its surroundings cannot
take any path. They must satisfy the three-dimensional wave equation:

The solution of the wave equation must give a zero amplitude in the walls, since a non-zero
value would dissipate energy, and violate the assumption of equilibrium. To form a standing
wave, the path of reflection around the cavity must be a closed path. The boundary conditions
can be satisfied with a solution of the form:

Substituting this solution to the previous wave equation gives

which is simplified to

 The number of modes in the cavity is:

The condition is obtained from the standing wave solution of the wave equation
Rayleigh scheme for mode counting.
From Richtmyer, et al.

It is necessary to evaluate the number

of modes that can meet this condition,
which is equivalent to counting all
possible combinations of the integer
values n. An approximation can be
made by treating the number of
combinations such as the volume of a
three-dimensional grid of the values of
n, a "n-space". Using the formula of the
volume of a sphere, with the values n
specifying the coordinates along three
axes "n", gives

However, this involves a couple of problems. When using the sphere, both positive and
negative values of n have been used, while the solution of the wave equation uses only
definite positive values. Therefore, it is necessary to take 1/8 of the previous volume. Another
technical problem is that you can have polarized waves in two perpendicular planes, so we
must multiply by two to account for it. Then, the volume can be taken as a measure of the
number of modes, becoming a very good approximation, when the size of the cavity is much
larger than the wavelength, as in the case of electromagnetic waves in a finite cavity. Using the
relation obtained for the values of n, this becomes

 The number of modes per unit wavelength is:

After having developed an expression for the number of standing wave modes in a cavity, the
distribution with the wavelength could be known. This can be obtained by taking the derivative
of the number of modes with respect to the wavelength.

The negative sign here reveals that the number of modes decreases with increasing wavelength.
Now, to obtain the number of modes per unit volume per unit wavelength, it can simply be
divided by the volume of the cubic cavity.
Note that this does not imply the approximation of a sphere with a cube! The sphere was used
to calculate the number of modes that were in a sphere in the "n-space", which allows counting
the number of possible modes. In addition, the use of a cubic cavity in the calculation, allows to
reduce the geometric complexity of the development, but the result obtained is independent of
the geometry of the cavity.
 The energy per unit volume per unit wavelength is:

The allocation of energies to electromagnetic standing waves in a cavity is based on the principle
of equipping energy. Each standing wave mode will have an average energy kT, where k is the
Boltzmann constant and T is the temperature in degrees Kelvin. Representing u as energy
density:

This is an important relationship in the classical theory of the electromagnetic cavity. It can also
be expressed in terms of the frequency ν, making use of the chain rule and the wave relationship:

The minus sign here, just remembers that a decrease in wavelength implies an increase in
frequency. The magnitude of the dependence of the energy density on the frequency is given
by:

Keep in mind that this is the classic result that was used in the Rayleigh-Jeans law, but that leads
to ultraviolet catastrophe. It produces a good agreement on the low frequency limit, but for the
higher frequencies the Planck radiation formula should be used.
 The average radiated energy per unit wavelength is:

If radiated energy is considered perpendicular to a small increase in area, then it should

be noted that if the system is in thermal equilibrium, half of the energy density of the
waves goes to the walls, and half goes out. The evaluation of the power seen at an
observation point requires a consideration of geometry:

For energy radiated perpendicularly

 but at an angle θ, the effective area will be Acosθ, and the effective speed will be c cosθ,
so the radiated energy will be reduced to

For an observation point near the radiant surface, the power will be the average power of
all directions, and the average gives another factor of 1/2.

After having averaged over all angles, the radiated power calculated per unit
wavelength is finally

This is the Rayleigh-Jeans formula. The fact that it failed to predict the spectral distribution
of hot objects was one of the main unresolved problems of physics in the early 20th
century.
To express it in terms of frequency, an application of the chain rule is performed as was
done previously with the energy density, giving a radiated power per unit of frequency:

 Which, expressed in terms of frequency is:

Rayleigh-Jeans vs Planck

Why does the Planck radiation curve fall below the classic Rayleigh-Jeans law? The origin
of the fall implies the probability of being occupied modes of higher frequency (higher
energy). It may be useful to compare with the probability for higher energies in an ideal
gas, such as that proposed by the Maxwell distribution. Given an energy of the order of
thermal energy, what is the probability that the system can be found in multiples of that
energy?
 Classic vision treats all electromagnetic modes of the cavity as equally likely, because an
infinitesimal amount of energy can be added to any mode. The quantum view expressed
in the Planck hypothesis is that you can add the energy of an entire photon, or not add
any at all. Since the excitation of a high frequency photon takes a high energy, above
the average thermal energy, it is therefore less likely. Thus, the radiation curve falls
progressively below the classical expectation.

The Rayleigh-Jeans curve is in accordance with Planck's radiation formula for large
wavelengths, low frequencies.
Radiación a Baja Frecuencia

Making use of the serial expansion of an exponential:

 Planck Radiation Formula
From the assumption that the electromagnetic modes in a cavity were quantized in
energy, with a quantum energy equal to Planck's constant multiplied by frequency,
Planck derived a formula for radiation. The average energy by "mode" or "quantum" is
the quantum energy, multiplied by the probability that it is occupied (the Einstein-Bose
distribution function):

This average energy multiplied by the density of these states, expressed in terms of the
frequency or wavelength

Planck's radiation formula is an example of energy distribution according to Bose-Einstein

statistics. The expressions above are obtained by multiplying the density of states in
terms of the frequency or wavelength, by the energy of the photon, and by the Bose-
Einstein distribution function, with the normalization constant A = 1.

To find the radiated energy per unit area from a surface at this temperature, the energy
density must be multiplied by c / 4. The density above is for thermal equilibrium, so that
setting inside = outside gives a factor of 1/2 for the energy radiated outward. Then you
have to average over all angles, which gives another factor of 1/2 for angular
dependence, which is the square of the cosine.

On October 19, 1900 Max Planck presented an article in the Physics Society of Berlin in
which he managed to explain a new distribution law that, to date, has resisted all
experimental events. The Planck Distribution law coincides with the Wien Distribution
law for short wavelengths and the Rayleigh-Jeans law for long wavelengths.
 or, depending on the wavelength, doing

and the density of electromagnetic energy in the equilibrium radiation:

Let's see that Rayleigh-Jeans and Wien's formulas are extreme cases of Planck's formula:

- For long wavelengths:

reducing Planck's formula to

which is the Rayleigh-Jeans distribution law.

- For short wavelengths:

and you have, when replacing, that

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbasees/quantum/rayj.html
(Y el documento anterior).