Does shaking an atom produce photons? I have a vague recollection of a description of the relationship between matter and light.  It went something along the lines of this:  "Grab hold of a thing and shake it up and down."  (More on the thing below.)  "This will emit electromagnetic radiation.  The faster you shake it, the higher the frequency of the radiation.  E.g., if you could shake it 600,000,000,000 times per second then … frequency = c / wavelength … the radiation would have a wavelength of 400nm, which is a frequency we perceive as green."  Continuing this scenario, "The harder you shake it the more radiation it emits.  I.e., shake it twice as hard and it will emit twice(?) as many photons."
My general question is whether this is in any literal sense true?
If so, for what things is it true?  Any atom?  Any collection of atoms?  (E.g., this is true of a solid rod of any material?)  Atoms regardless of their ionization state?  Regardless of their material "state" (i.e., including plasma or condensates)?
 A: For you to produce radiation in the form of photons by shaking a 'thing', that 'thing' has to be charged. So for example, an electron vibrating will produce radiation with amplitude proportional to the amplitude of the vibration and frequency equal to that of said vibration.
If the 'thing' is not charged, then it doesn't produce any electromagnetic field, and then if you shake it, no photons are emmited.
Also, number of photons is proportional to the intensity, and intensity is proportional to the amplitude of the field squared. That means that if you increase the amplitude of the vibration of the electron, you will produce 4 times as much photons.
Finally, to produce a constant stream of photons notice that you need to give a constant amount of energy to the particle you are shaking, so if you just make it wiggle a little, it will eventually loose all it's vibrational anergy in the form of photons and stop moving.
And to answer the question in the title, shaking an uncharged atom does not produce nothing if it stays uncharged all the way through. But if yout atom is ionized in any way, it will produce some.
