Quantum 1/f noise

Quantum 1/f noise is an intrinsic and fundamental part of quantum mechanics. Fighter pilots, photographers, and scientists all appreciate the higher quality of images and signals resulting from the consideration of quantum 1/f noise. Engineers have battled unwanted 1/f noise since 1925, giving it poetic names (such as flicker noise, funkelrauschen, bruit de scintillation, etc.) due to its mysterious nature. The Quantum 1/f noise theory was developed about 50 years later, describing the nature of 1/f noise, allowing it the be explained and calculated via straightforward engineering formulas. It allows for the low-noise optimization of materials, devices and systems of most high-technology applications of modern industry and science. The theory includes the conventional and coherent quantum 1/f effects (Q1/fE). Both effects are combined in a general engineering formula, and present in Q1/f noise, which is itself most of fundamental 1/f noise. The latter is defined as the result of the simultaneous presence of nonlinearity and a certain type of homogeneity in a system, and can be quantum or classical. The conventional Q1/fE represents 1/f fluctuations caused by bremsstrahlung, decoherence and interference in the scattering of charged particles off one another, in tunneling or in any other process in solid state physics and in general. It has also recently been claimed that 1/f noise has been seen in higher ordered self constructing functions, as well as complex systems, both biological, chemical, and physical. The basic derivation of quantum 1/f was made by Peter Handel, a theoretical physicist at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and published in Physical Review A, in August 1980. Several hundred papers have been published by many authors on Handel's quantum theory on 1/f noise, which is a new aspect of quantum mechanics. They verified, applied, and further developed the quantum 1/f noise formulas. Aldert van der Ziel, the nestor of the electronic noise field, verified and applied it in many devices and systems, together with dozens of his PhD students.