Text: [PHYS] A term characterizing an excitation in a wave or field, counting fundamental particlelike properties such as energy or mass, momentum, and angular momentum for this excitation. In general, any field or wave equation that is quantized, including systems already treated in quantum mechanics that are second-quantized, leads to a particle interpretation for the excitations which are called quanta of the field. This term historically was first applied to indivisible amounts of electromagnetic, or light, energy usually referred to as photons. The photon, or quantum of the electromagnetic field, is a massless particle, best interpreted as such by quantizing Maxwell's equations. Analogously, the electron can be said to be the quantum of the Dirac field through second quantization of the Dirac equation, which also leads to the prediction of the existence of the positron as another quantum of this field with the same mass but with a charge opposite to that of the electron. In similar fashion, quantization of the gravitational field equations suggests the existence of the graviton. The pi meson or pion was theoretically predicted as the quantum of the nuclear force field. Another quantum is the quantized lattice vibration, or phonon, which can be interpreted as a quantized sound wave since it travels through a quantum solid or fluid, or through nuclear matter, in the same manner as sound goes through air.

See Also: PHONON

Source: The Dynamic Theory of Life and Mind, Alexander, James B., Minneapolis, The Housekeeper Press, 1893. ,