A photon with a frequency associated with ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by a hydrogen atom. The atom later undergoes spontaneous photon emission, producing three photons. How is this possible, and what can you say about the energies of the emitted photons?

Question

aaronq · Answer

The energy of each emitted photon is less than 1/3 of the original UV photon absorbed - assuming a Stokes' shift occurred.

As for how this can happen, we could speculate that the electric field of the UV photon was split into the three different photons... though i've never heard of this, and I have no idea by which mechanism this would occur.