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I've noticed that in my studies of Quantum Phenomena, it is a fundamentally important concept that accelerating electrons produces light, as it's a really important concept in stuff like the inverse Compton effect and lasing.

This light is always released with a frequency equal to the amount of energy leaving the electron and going into the system (like if an electron loses speed from the deflection of an atom). But why is this leftover energy converted into light? Why not vibration/heat into the system? If my question is confusing, let me know and I'll elaborate.

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Who says it's not? I'm most of the simple situations the energy of the excitation ends up as light (i.e. radiative transitions) but it's plenty possible to have nonradiative transitions where the energy is transferred to other degrees of freedom such as the motion of the nuclei. Radiative transitions are easier to study because there is a clear indicator that they've happened (the light), which makes it easier for them to make the cut, but just because they're not mentioned in a given intro textbook, it doesn't mean that nonradiative transitions don't happen.

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  • $\begingroup$ What about in cases like the inverse Compton effect, then? $\endgroup$
    – sangstar
    Commented Jul 11, 2017 at 8:10
  • $\begingroup$ What about them? Some processes produce photons. Other processes don't. The ones that do we can see directly. The ones that don't we infer by other means. $\endgroup$
    – Emilio Pisanty
    Commented Jul 11, 2017 at 8:58

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